What Happens In Rio Sequal to 'The Guy Next Door'
by MrsBradMaddox
Summary: After things went south with Joe, Annabelle is back into her old lifestyle. What happens when she finally comes home and has to face Joe again? Will they ever mend what they once had? Rated M for language and sex later on.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is a sequel to "The Guy Next Door" Joe makes a few visits in the first few chapters but he won't be regular until like 7 or 8 chapters in. If you've watched Fast 5 this will sound familiar, but I throw in my own little twist.

"After the heat from our last DEA run I can't believe that we're doing another job so soon. It's barely been a month." I tell Brian and Mia. "This is insane. And I love it." I add with a grin. "Where is Vince meeting us?"

"He's got a house in Rio now." Brian answers. The car was constantly jumping and bouncing, these Rio roads weren't exactly prime driving. "It's just up here on the left." He murmurs glancing at our surroundings. Mia hand her arm over the seat, rubbing Brian's neck affectionately and I could only grin at them. He pulled off to the side and we pile out of the old black car.

"This has got to be it, right?" Mia sighs. This wasn't the most awesome part of town either. I followed the two and we climbed up a set of stairs. As we climbed stairs more and more people came out of the wood work, their guns ready in hand.

"Maybe this is the wrong place?" I murmur softly walking closely to Brian.

"Lets get out of here." Brian says in a low tone, taking Mia by the arm and starting to turn away. That's when Vince's voice made us turn around, he was talking in Spanish.

"Mia. Annabelle." He smiles at us, bouncing down a few steps.

"Vince." Mia grins, jumping into his arms.

"Come up." Vince says, motioning up the steps.

"Dom here yet?" Brian asks curiously.

"Nah." He answers with a shake of his head.

"When was the last time you heard from him?" I ask, concerned. We all got split up when our last job went bad. The police had basically surrounded us and we scattered. Mia, Brian and I found each other, Vince took off to Rio and Dom was no where to be found.

"Few weeks ago. He was in Ecuador." Vince answers. I glance at Mia, who had a worried look on her face and give her shoulder a pat. A half hour later we're around Vince's table, shoveling food into our mouths as if we hadn't eaten in days. Since the last job, we hadn't come by anything else so money was pretty scarce right now. I barely had enough to pay the horse board and my bills, and the horses always ate before I did.

Mia was in the kitchen with Vince's woman and the baby, while the boys were in the living room talking about this new job. I, on the other hand was lying across the couch texting with Kelly. Let me catch you up to speed. If you remember,after Joe and I ended badly, Dom came to me about snatching some DEA siezed vehicles a while back, well it was a little over a year ago now. Yeah, a year. That job actually had gone really well, so of course we stuck around and kept doing them... And doing them, until they began to go bad. This run coming up is supposed to be our last one, the icing on the cake then we're headed back to Florida. The thought of Joe still pings my heart if I think about it too much, but I'd say for the most part I've moved past it and accepted that we will most likely never be an item again. He's made several attempts to contact me in the past year... But I had told Jon that day that I'd be unreachable, something I know he had to have told Joe, and I stuck with that, ignoring Joe's calls and messages to the bitter end. As I'm texting Kelly I'm listening to the conversation a few feet away between Vince and Brian.

"So listen, this job coming up... I was hoping Dom was gonna be here by now but this one is clean enough we can do it without him." Vince starts and I tilt my head in their direction. "It's a good gig, couple of high end cars... Real easy targets. A guy I know is putting together a team to swipe 'em, just need a few more willing bodies." He states.

"I don't know..." Brian murmurs and I see him take a sip of his beer out of the corner of my eye.

"Look, the way the car scene is down here we can unload them quick and get top dollar." Vince explains. "It's easy money... And from where I"m sitting, it looks like all y'all could use the payday." He states.

"I would like to continue to feed myself and the horses." I chirp from the couch. "I think we should do it." I add.

"You've got to make the call." Mia tells him. She'd come back downstairs a few minutes ago, sitting at the table with the guys.

"Alright, we're in." Brian finally agrees.

"We leave in the morning." Vince nods, "Get some sleep." He adds, pushing his chair back and standing up. The next morning we're up bright and early, I'm helping Vince take some bags to the car when the deep rumbling of a car exhaust makes both of us glance behind us.

"Dominic." I exclaim, relieved.

"Southern." He smiles, wrapping his arms around me. "Where's Brian and Mia?" He questions looking up at Vince.

"They're on the train." He replies, "She was going to run with me, but now that you're here she can ride with you." He shrugs.

"I'll follow you out." Dom nods, "Get in." He says to me.

***...***...***

"You can't just disappear on me like that, you know how I worry." I scold my brother. We were flying high speed through the desert on some kind of buggy with Vince and a couple other guys.

"I didn't have a phone." He answers. "Lost it somewhere in Panama." He adds.

"Here we go!" Vince shouts. The buggy lined up right next to the very last train car and the other guys went to work with blow torches, making a hole big enough to get a few full sized cars through. The thin sheet metal finally gave way and it came loose with a loud 'whoosh' sound, flipping over the ground behind us.

"Dom!" Mia exclaims, hugging him.

"I thought I told you to lay low." Dom says to Brian, narrowing his eyes at the younger guy.

"We've been running on fumes, I had to make a call." He answers.

"Hey! Quit talking, we only have a two minute window." One of the guys says to us. He was obviously the ring leader of the group we didn't know and he didn't look very impressed with us.

"Lets go Vince." Dom says. Vince lowers himself into the black car, turning it over. Two guys attack a set of chains to the bottom frame and it yanks the car right out of the train, making me about jump out of my skin. "Easy, Southern." He murmurs. We watch Vince back off the ramp and steer the car back towards Rio.

"I'm taking the GT40." The ringleader tells Dom, who gives him a look over his shoulder. The guy moves to go into the blue car, but Dom stops him, extending a hand and blocking his way.

"Ladies first." Dom says. He raised his eyebrows, challenging the guy to stand up to him. "Go." He says, looking at Mia and myself. I hop into the passenger seat and Mia makes a move for the driver seat. The idiot hooking up the chain stands up as if he's about to say something, but Brian ends that quickly, pushing the guy back a few feet.

"Hey, this car suits me better." Mia shrugs.

"Let them go." The ringleader nods. Then proceeds to say something in Spanish to the man, who glances at us then nods.

"Change in plans, wait for my instructions." Dom whispers, leaning into Mia's side of the car. I about get whiplash when we're yanked out of the train, and I'm pretty sure I see my life flash in front of my eyes when the ramp starts to go up. It was like a roller coaster from hell.

"This is bad news!" I tell Mia as she took us towards the warehouse we'd been using to store old cars in Rio. With as loud as the wind was whipping through the car windows it was impossible not to yell back and forth.

"Dom knows what he's doing!" She says back.

"You're more confident than I am." I grumble, leaning back in my seat.

"Just checking to make sure you're safe." Text from Kelly.

"We're good for now. With Mia headed back to Rio." Text to Kelly.

"Keep me updated on what's going on, I'll worry until the boys are back with you." Text from Kelly.

"I always keep you in the loop :) Hopefully I'll be seeing you soon." Text to Kelly.

"No kidding! Love you, miss you!" Text from Kelly.

"Love you and miss you too :)" Text to Kelly.

"So now what? Hurry up and wait?" I ask Mia when we gotten to the garage. "What if shit went bad and they're coming after the car?" I ask again. She was leaning up against the counter, messing with the radio channels until she finally got a clear one. It was in Spanish, but I got most of it.

"The American fugitives killed three DEA agents during a train robbery," The woman says. "Police warn they are armed and extremely dangerous." She states and I look at Mia wide eyed. "Anyone with information should contact law enforcement immediately."

"They're blaming us for this?" I hiss. "Shit went bad, something is wrong." I insist, tightening my grip on the small hand gun I kept on me.

"Calm down, we don't know that yet." She says. We both jump and hurry behind one of the pillars when metal hitting metal echos through the garage. Someone was here.

"Mia?!" Brian calls. I breath out a huge sigh of relief and we both appear from behind the pillar. Mia wraps her arms around Brian and I go over to hug Dominic. He chuckles, glancing at the gun in my hand and the wrench in Mia's.

"Like a true Toretto." He grins and I only shrug.

"Where's Vince?" I ask, glancing behind them.

"That's a good question." Brian states, looking unimpressed.

"He'll be here." Dom assures us.

"Guys, we're all over the news. They're blaming us for the DEA agents on the train." Mia tells the guys.

"Which means we've just jumped to the top of the wanted list." Brian says. "The feds have to show everyone their agents are off limits. They're going to send their best guys, we've got to get out of here." He insists. Meanwhile I cock my head, eyeing my brother as he circles the GT40 Mia and I had drove here.

"One thing they know for sure, is that they wanted this car." Dom says pointing to it.

"There's something in it." Brian nods, agreeing with Dom.

"We find out what is it, we'll know what we're up again." He says. "Annabelle, this is your department, tear this bitch up." He grins at me.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: WOw, I honestly wasn't expecting all the follows/favs/reviews from that first chapter. You guys are so awesome to me! Oh y'all... I'm about to go through with the whole movie, compressed into 6 or 7 chapters, then Joe will be back full time :)

**Back at Joe's**

"Why the long face?" Colby asks Joe, walking into their locker room. He was on a bench, both feet kicked up, crossed over and leaning against the wall.

"What's up man?" Jon agrees. He pulled off his sweaty shirt and tosses it into his bag.

"Nothin'." Joe murmurs glancing up at the two. They'd all had singles matches tonight.

"Bullshit, you got that fuckin' look again." Jon accuses him. "You tried calling her again didn't you? Man I told you, she ain't got her cell phone. You're not gonna be able to get a hold of her." He says frustrated. Jon could hold a grudge with the best of them, and he was still bitter against her for bailing out the way she did.

"I don't believe that for a second. She never went anywhere without that damn phone glued to her hand." Joe scoffs.

"Why do you want to talk to her? I can't believe you even talk to him after what they did." Colby scoffs, pointing at Jon who glowers at the two toned man. "If she wanted to talk to you, she'd have gotten a hold of you by now." Colby states.

"Would she?" He snaps back. They hadn't exactly ended on great terms. Joe was so upset with what happened between Jon and Annabelle, and how they lied about it to him that he'd shut her totally out of his life. He ignored her calls, her texts, her attempts to get a hold of him through Colby or his cousin Jon. Then, when he finally had time to clear his head, think about everything and wanted to talk to her it was too late. Her house was empty and it looked like she'd been gone for awhile. Jon hadn't said anything about her phone call to him until after his first couple days off at home, and Kelly wouldn't tell him shit. Colby doesn't respond to that, they all knew that she wouldn't reach out to him. In her eyes, he hated her... And at one point, he did.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself man." Jon states. "I mean, she could be moved on with a boyfriend by now. You shouldn't get your hopes up, ya know?"

"She's not seeing anyone else. I don't want to sound like a sap, but we were meant to be." Joe tells the two who rolled their eyes at each other. "I'm serious guys, you know I've tried to move on, date other girls... But the other girls, they're not her." He sighs. Sometimes he hated himself for how bad he needed her. "I just want to know she's safe. I know she's out there with Dominic doing some crazy ass shit. Plus if she didn't have her phone, why does it ring when i call? Why does the text go to 'read' when I send her messages?" Neither Jon or Colby respond, they had no explanation to warrant that.

***Back in Rio***

I'm literally inside of this car, completely covered in grease when Vince finally shows up. "God damn, what a mess." He grumbles glancing around the place.

"Where you been man?" Brian asks accusingly.

"You better check your tone." Vince growls at him.

"You better answer the question-"

"Stop it!" Mia tells them, putting her hands up to Brian's chest to stop him. I roll my eyes and continue to tear the car apart, piece by piece.

"Where were you Vince?" Dom asks him in a much calmer tone.

"They guys were all asking about you, I couldn't get out of there without leading them right to you." He explains. "Had to wait them out."

"That's such bullshit! That was your job!" Brian exclaims, going right after Vince.

"Enough!" Dom roars, stopping both men in their tracks. "If he says he didn't do it, he didn't do it. Go walk it off." He says to Brian, who shakes his head and turns on his heel to leave. "Keep digging." He tells me.

"I haven't stopped." I murmur, tossing the oil pan over my shoulder nonchalantly. After years of growing up with him, my brother no longer intimidated me. An hour later I'm sitting in the passenger seat, tearing up the interior, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"Take a break Annabelle, we'll keep going tomorrow." Dom says. "You're knuckles are bleeding." He adds, tossing me an old rag. I sigh and step out of the car, walking over to the couch and laying down. "Night." He murmurs, running a hand through my messy locks. I'm woke up in the middle of the night, by Dom's voice again. "Almost wish I didn't see that." He says. Confused, I push myself up a bit. Vince was standing by some of the junk I'd pulled from the car. "Almost."

"Wait Dom." Vince starts.

"Mia was on that train. Annabelle was on that fucking train!" He shouts, slamming Vince into the wall.

"I didn't know!" He says back.

"You set up the deal!" Dom growls.

"I thought the job was for the cars, I didn't know. All they want is the chip." Vince tells him.

"Damn!" He says, slamming his hands on the wall. "You should have come clean!" He adds, running a hand over his bald head.

"What's going on?" Mia asks, her voice sleepy.

"Nothing." Dom says.

"Please Dom, just let me have the chip. I'll take it them, and set things right." Vince pleads with him. By this point, I'm leaning over the back of the couch like I was watching a freaking TV show.

"Get out." Dom says in a low tone.

"What?" Vince asks softly.

"GET OUT!" Dom hollers.

"You never listened to me... You never trusted me then, and you don't trust me now." Vince says. "And looks where it's gotten us. Look at our family now." He says, his voice coming up slightly. "I can't go home! Your sisters are stuck in this life. Where's Letty Dom?" He asks. I probably left that part out when I caught you up to speed. Letty, may her soul rest in piece, was no longer with us. With that said, Vince finally turns and leaves.

"Go back to bed." Dom sighs, walking off.

***...***...***

The next morning we're all surrounding Brian, who had just put the SD card into the navigation system that I'd pulled from the car. It powers to life, revealing what looked like a list of addresses.

"What do you think?" Mia asks him.

"It's definitely a custom chip... Look at all these side menus here." Brian answers, pointing to areas on the screen. Lets check this one." He says, hitting one of the options. "Look at that. Same building, same order every week."

"It's a delivery schedule." I tell them.

"What's that?" Mia asks, clicking an option. "Drugs?" She asks.

"No, no that's a dealer pack." Brian answers, seemingly interested. "See most major players they weight their money so they don't have to constantly count it." He explains, glancing at her. "Right there that's 49 kilos, and uhm... 49 kilos is a million in twenties."

"So each of these shipments is 10 million dollars?" I ask him counting packs on the screen.

"Yeah." He answers simply.

"That's serious money." I mutter looking up at Dominic.

"So what is that? 100 million plus in cash houses?" Brian says.

"That's how he keeps it all off the grid." Dom states.

"It's safe to say why Reyes wants this back I mean it's his whole network right here, just laid out on a freaking chip." I say, pointing to the screen. We all perk to attention when we hear glass breaking.

"Go." Dom whispers, pointing to the wall on the east side of the garage. Brian grabs the chip and gives Mia a push in that direction. Dom boosts me up and I grab the edge, pulling myself up and over onto the other side. "Lets go." He adds, grabbing my wrist and half dragging me along behind him. "Run!" He says a bit louder when we hear gun shots.

"Fuck! Why's everyone got to shoot at us?!" I holler back at him, running down a narrow pathway between houses.

"Up!" Dom shouts, leaping onto a trash can then up onto a roof. I follow right in his footsteps and in no time we're easily scaling across the rooftops of these houses. "Jump!" He calls back, leaping from one house to another.

"I'm out of shape." I huff mostly to myself, following him across the house.

"Take my hand." Dom says slowing down. "We're about to go for a ride." He adds. The next thing I knew we were jumping off the side of a house and falling for what seemed like forever. I hear breaking glass and we both look behind us just in time to see a guy, about my brothers size bust through a window in our pursuit.

"Who the fuck is that?" I ask panting after we rolled several times in our landing. He and Dom lock eyes, and he once again grabs my wrists, taking us down another level and quickly around a corner.

"I don't know who that was." He answers quietly, ducking into a culvert pipe. "Come on, stick close." He adds, putting a hand on the small of my back and putting me in front of him. I give myself a pat down and let out a sigh of relief when I feel my Iphone in my back pocket. We find Mia and Brian at the end of the same pipe. "They're going to be looking for the four of us together now. You guys head South, I'll lead them away." He says.

"No." Both Mia and I say at the same time.

"No, he's right. We just got lucky this time, what happens next time?" Brian asks looking at Mia. "We've got no choice but to split up."

"I'm pregnant." Mia spit out. My jaw drops, how the hell did she hide this from me?

"What?" Brian asks, a little softer.

"I've already lost my family once, I'm not going through that again." She says.

"Are you serious?" Brian asks, still trying to digest what he'd just heard.

"Yeah." She smiles.

"Well I'm not going anywhere, ok?" he assure her.

"Dom, promise me we stick together." Mia says, looking at our brother.

"I promise." He assure her, wrapping all of us into a hug. "Our family just got bigger." He chuckles. We managed to find an abandoned building later that night. I was exhausted, it only took me a few minutes to fall asleep in one of the chairs.


	3. Chapter 3

Apparently last night, while Mia and I were sleeping the guys came up with the crazy ass plan to rob this Reyes character. We're all sitting on the patio, leaning over the edge over looking the city the next morning.

"Lets run through the bases here quick." I start off. "This is crazy as hell." I add with a chuckle.

"First we need a chameleon. Someone who can blend in anywhere." Dom states. "I've got that." He adds with a smirk.

"What else?" Mia asks.

"A fast talker. Someone who can bullshit their way out of anything." He answers.

"Oh I got that." Brian laughs.

"This guys going to have a lot of surveillance. We're going to need some one who's good with circuits." I tell them.

"And with the circuits Reyes is going to have walls, we need guys to punch through those walls." Dom adds, and smirks at me.

"Rico and Tego." I chuckle. "My two favorite Mexicans."

"Alright, what else?" Mia asks.

"Utilities and weapons. Someone who ain't afraid to throw down." He says. "Someone to back up every position."

"Yeah, what else do we need?" Brian asks.

"Most importantly. We need to precision drivers. Guys that don't crack under pressure, guys that never lose." Dom answers.

"You know we got that." Brian laughs.

***...***...***

"My Mexicans!" I exclaim excited, seeing both Tego and Rico standing with the rest of the crew in the middle of the warehouse. I jump right into Tego's arms and wrap my legs around his waist. I'd been in so many tight spots with these two, I trust them with my life completely.

"Hola chica." Tego grins kissing my cheek.

"Han." I smile, hugging him too. Another man that I'd trust my entire person with, no questions asked. "How are you love?" I ask him.

"You know, same old." He shrugs, leaving an arm around my shoulder.

"I see you all have met." Dom says, walking into the warehouse.

"There he is." Han chuckles.

"Man, what did you drag us half way across the world for?" Tej asks, his eyebrows raising in question.

"We've got a job." Dom answers, smirking at the group. We gather around a table, that has a huge map of the town laid out across it. Each cash house is marked with a thumb tac.

"Alright, our targets name is Hernan Reyes and he runs the drug scene down here." Brian starts to explain. "He's never been busted because he doesn't leave a paper trail."

"No paper trail means no banks, no banks means cash houses." Gisele says.

"That's right. Ten of them to be exact, spread throughout the city." He nods.

"And we're going to hit them all." Dom grins.

"All of them?" Tej questions, glancing wearily at Dom.

"All of them." I nod, answering the question.

"Sounds crazy. Bringing us to another country, so we can rob the dude that runs it?" Roman asks. "I thought you said this was business? Sounds personal to me. Sorry man, but personal isn't good business." He adds, starting to walk off.

"So what we're talking about here is 100 million dollars." Dom states.

"What? You say, you said 100..." Roman starts. "Sometimes I be over reacting."

"That's right, 100 million and we split everything we taken even." Dom nods.

"So... 11 million a piece?" Tej asks. "I am down." He nods. Everyone else chimes in at that point too with a unison of 'I"m in" or "Count us in."

"You can't pull off ten heists on a mark. You just can't." Gisele starts off. "As soon as we hit the first one, he's gonna do everything he can to protect the rest of them."

"That's what we're hoping for." I smirk at her.

***...***...***

We're at the first cash house on the chip the next day, waiting for the scheduled guy to show his face. Finally a black BMW shows up. Dom, Brian and Roman jump him pushing him up against the wall and holding a gun to his chin.

"If you're smart home boy, you'll just do what you normally do." Roman tells him casually, pushing to the front door of the cash house. He gives it a knock and the small window slides open before the whole door opens and we bust through it.

"No body move! NO body move!" Tego shouts in spanish. We line everyone up against the wall, sitting them on their knees and tying up the men's arms behind their backs. I watch as the guys stack the money onto a cart in the middle of the room.

"It's all here." Brian says, putting the last of the money on the car.

"You're a dead man. You're all dead. Do you know whose house this is? Do you know who's money it is you're stealing?" The guy that we'd jumped earlier asks us.

"We ain't stealing it." Dom tell him casually. He pulls out a lighter, and tosses it onto the now gasoline soaked cash. "You tell your boss exactly who did this. Tell him there's more coming." Dom says. He nods at us, and we all single file walk out of the room not even glancing back.

"I'm going to call Kelly, I'll be right outside." I tell Dom, pointing to the back door.

"Keep your ears open." He tells me as I walked away.

"Hey!" She greets me, obviously relieved. "I kinda thought you'd be home by now." She adds.

"Change of plans. We're still in Rio, one last job." I tell her.

"You said that about the last one." She grumbles.

"I know." I chuckle. "I'm sorry." I go ahead and explain the whole story to her, and what we were planning on doing in Rio. "So I"m not sure when I'll be back at this point." i tell her.

"I hate that." She states. "I'm at your house, grabbing your mail." She adds and a few seconds later I hear a car door slam.

"Yeah? Am I getting anything good?" I chuckle.

"Not really." She answers. "Mostly junk mail, but last week you got an awesome shopping magazine, I bought stuff out of it." She adds.

"Well I"m glad you got use out of it." I sigh, sitting down on the metal grate steps behind me.

"Kelly!" My heart stops when I hear Joe call out here name.

"Oh, shit." She murmurs. "He is headed right for me." She adds.

"I know you're on the phone with her. Let me talk to her." Joe says to her.

"No, Kelly don't you dare hand that phone over to him. Swear to god I"ll hang up." I warn her.

"It's really not Annabelle Joe." She tells him. Kelly was such a god awful liar, she couldn't tell a lie if it meant her life.

"Is she in jail?" He asks her and I scoff at the question.

"Mother fucker... Am I in jail? Asshole." I grumble, "I know he's fucking kidding."

"She's not in jail Joe, I really have to get going I just stopped by for her mail." She tells him. She was trying to get away from him, but I knew Joe and he was stubborn he wasn't about to just let her walk away.

"Annabelle, I know you can hear me." He basically growls. He must've gotten right up in Kelly's face because it sounded nearly like she'd handed him the phone. I also didn't really appreciate his attitude.

"Joe, really I've got to go and you're acting crazy." She states. "Hold on." She says and I assume she's talking to me. A few seconds later the car door slams again and I hear the engine kick on. "Sorry..." She murmurs.

"Nothing you could have done about it." I tell her with a shrug.

"I don't get it. They guy went six months without even trying to speak to you, without even acknowledging that you weren't at the house or talking to anyone in the company." She mumbles.

"Yeah I don't know." I sigh. "I just wanted to give you an update." I add.

"Alright, well call me tomorrow if you can." She says.

"I will Kel. Talk to you later." I add before hanging up the phone. I scroll through my contact list and stare hard at Joe's number for a few minutes.

"What are you thinking about?" Han asks, making me jump.

"Nothing." I say quickly, shoving my phone into my pocket.

"Dinner inside." He says, nodding his head towards the door. "Come and eat something."

"I'll be there in just a second."


	4. Chapter 4

"Number one is on the move, man." Tego says over the radio. Tej and I were on a rooftop that over looked most of the city, hoping that where ever he put all of his cash we'd be able to get tabs on it from here.

"Two is on the move." Roman says a few moments later.

"I've got three." Giesel says.

"Lookin' good so far." I murmur to Tej. I hoisted myself up onto the wall of the roof, walkie talkie in hand and bounced my feet off the brick.

"I got mine." Han comes in.

"There's ours." Tej states, focusing on the car below with his binoculars.

"We've got eyes on five." I say into the mic.

"Where are they goin'?" He mumbles with a confused expression. "No way." He mutters.

"What?" I ask him.

"Give me the walkie." He states and I hand it to him. "I know y'all said they were consolidating the money somewhere, but y'all ain't gonna believe this." He says.

"Holy fuck." I grumble, looking down at the police station.

***...***...***

"Well, this job just got a lot harder." Brian says, hands shoved deep in his pockets.

"If he's moving into a police station, he's got some serious brass." Roman states. Rico goes off, rambling something in spanish and Tego agrees.

"Hell yeah, we can't do this." Tego exclaims.

"Can't?" Han chuckles. "You mean, shouldn't." He corrects him and I let out a short laugh.

"No shit." I agree with Han.

"I think this doesn't change a thing." Dom says simply. "I say we stick to the plan."

"Say what?" Roman asks astonished. "This just went from mission impossible to mission in fucking sanity." He says. Both Dom and Brian give him looks, "Whatever man, I ain't scared! I'm just saying, goin' in that freaking building. It's crazy." He says throwing his hands in the air and walking off.

"I got this!" Brian grins, following behind him.

"This is gonna be good." I chuckle, glancing at Mia.

"So the beauty of public offices?" Mia starts when we were back at the warehouse. "Public records." She answer herself, flattening out a blue print of the police station on the table.

"That's where's he's keeping the money. The vault in the evidence room." Brian says, pointing to it on the print.

"Uhm, uh... Yeah." Tej starts up. "Can I get everyone's attention, right here, for a second?" He asks. "We're talking about breaking into a police station, anyone listening to those words? Po-Po, pigs, 5-0, people we don't like."

"You know police stations are designed to keep people in, not out." Han comments.

"That's why it's a stealth mission, we'll be in and out before they even know." Brian answers with a smug look on his face.

"We'll need to get eyes in there. At least to find out the make and model of that vault." I tell the group. "No point in any of this if we can't crack that baby." I add.

"So the vault... And then... It's crazy." Roman rambles off. "Who's gonna do all this?" He asks. We all kind of grin at each other and look back at Roman. "Me? Why's it got to be me?" He asks with a furrowed brow.

"Because you have the biggest mouth." Brian answer simply.

"That's for dang sure." Tej agrees and I laugh.

***...***...***

"Is he in yet?" I mumble. The last thing I wanted to be doing right now was sitting in the back of this van, cramped up with Tej and Brian.

"Well, he ain't back yet so I'm gonna assume no." Brian mutters unimpressed. "Chill out." He adds.

"It's fucking hot in here." I grumble.

"Whiny thing today ain't ya?" Tej asks.

"Shut up." I tell him sticking my tongue out. Thankfully a second later Roman pulls the side door open, letting in some fresh air and hopping into the van. "Finally." I roll my eyes.

"It's done. See I think I make a better special agent than you ever did." Roman says, giving Brian a hard time.

"That depends on how you define 'special'." He grins, giving Roman a pat on the head.

"Lets do this." I tell them.

"Lets see what we got." Tej agrees, messing with the controls and flipping the remote control car out of the box, we'd attached a camera on the top to give a nice view of what was in the evidence room.

"Man, you still can't drive." Roman states as the small car bumped into a couple posts, than a wall. I let out a soft chuckle, it was kind of funny. "Now I see why you're always getting into accidents." He adds.

"I'm gonna need you to shut up right now." Tej murmurs.

"I am not gonna shut up." Roman says.

"Man, strap him in his safety belt." Tej grumbles and Brian and I both chuckle.

"Look there's something right over there... No, Tej, to the left. Yeah, right there." I say pointing at the screen.

"What is that?" Brian wonders out loud.

"Bingo." Tej says. "There she is."

"What is that like 6x6?" I ask him.

"8x12." Roman says.

"It's 7x12." Tej corrects us. "Fitted with 18 inch steel, reinforced walls with a insulated copper core to protect against thermal lance. A class 3 electronic lock with a surefire Griffin retumbler and a biometric palm scanner." He says and I look at Brian wide eyed. "Ten tons of top of the line security."

"Do I wanna know how you know all that?" Brian asks.

"I had a life before you knew me O'Conner." He answers. "Lets just leave it at that. She is a beauty though."

"A beauty as in good?" I ask hopefully.

"A beauty as in, she's gonna start off playing hard to get... And no matter how much I caress her, no matter how much I love her, she still ain't gonna give up that ass." He shakes his head. Brian glances at me as my phone starts to buzz in my pocket, and I pull it out expecting a message from Dom or Mia.

"I want to talk to you." Text from Joe.

"Dom?" Brian asks curiously.

"No. It's no one." I say, locking the phone and shoving it back into my pocket.

"That's one of the toughest to crack, we won't get anywhere with it unless we get a duplicate to practice with." Tej says, still focused on the vault.

***...***...***

"Ok, even assuming you can breach the safe... How the hell do we get in?" Mia asks. Dom, Mia, myself and Brian were all around the table talking strategy.

"Yeah I've been thinking about the way in." Brian answers. "The wall to the evidence room, it's alarmed so that's not happening. Then we've got this one here but there's a guard shack outside." He says pointing to it on the blue print. "So that's no good. But this one, it shares a wall with the bathroom in the basement. "

"What about the money? That's gonna be some heavy shit to move." Roman says, munching on some chips that were in his palm.

"You're talking about 5 ton cash weight." I say biting on my bottom lip. My phone buzzes again and I glance at it on the table. Joe was pretty persistent today.

"I know you're with your brother. Just want to know you're safe." Text from Joe.

And a few seconds after that...

"Please call me." Text from Joe.

I quickly hit the lock button and ignore the messages, and ignore the look that Dom was giving me right now.

"That's the thing about the basement wall, It's got a vent that leads into the parking garage." Brian answers. "All we gotta do is pop that vent and pass the money through to some waiting cars." He grins.

"Tego, Rico... You're up." Dom tells them.

"The brothers of mass destruction." I laugh.

"You should call him." Dom says to me a little while later. I was sprawled out across the couch, reading a book as we waited on Tego and Rico to come back from the police station.

"Why would I do that?" I murmur not taking my eyes off the book.

"Because you love him, and you miss him." He says simply.

"Which is exactly why I'm not calling." I sigh. "Why would I put myself through any more pain by calling him?" I ask Dom.

"Maybe he wants to work things out, he said he wanted to know that you're safe. If he didn't still care he wouldn't be trying to text and call you. On the other hand, you haven't heard a single thing from that Jon guy, who supposedly did care about you." He raises his eye brows.

"He's gonna ask questions, that I don't have answers for right now." I sigh. "And honestly Dom it took me so long to get over him, I don't think I can take reopening that wound."

"Yeah... Except you're not over him." He smiles sadly and I sigh again.

"We're in." Mia says from across the room. We both hop up from the couch and everyone gathers around where she sat.

"We're looking at 4 cameras." Brian says.

"That's some high end stuff." I mutter, studying the pictures on the screen. "Marker optics, Hundred degree field of view. Ten seconds ossilasion." I add.

"Yeah, that's a narrow window man." Brian murmurs.

"Can we just tap in a replace the image?" Giesel asks curiously.

"Nah it's hooked up to a digital sync. They would know we were in the system. The best we can do is peek." Tej answers.

"Well this is awesome." I mumble crossing my arms over my chest.

"We're gonna need some fast cars to get through this." Roman comments.

"Not just fast, agile." Han adds. "You've got a hard right and a hairpin."

"You guys mock up a track." Dom says, "O'Conner, lets go get some cars."

"Nice." Brian grins.

***...***...***

"Who's up first?" The guys grin when they get back with the cars.

"Where'd you get that? Papa smurf?" Roman teases Brian. The car was bright ass blue.

"Alright O'Conner, give it your best shot." Dom tells him over the loud speaker. Mia and I were front and center in front of the cameras, watching to see if he could actually make it.

"Number two got him." I murmur, pointing to the screen.

"Number three too." Mia adds.

"How was that one?" Brian asks, stepping out of the car.

"Camera caught you." Han shrugs.

"What? Man I was milking the hell out of that thing." Brian mutters.

"Yeah, it still caught you." He says.

"We're gonna need a faster car." Dom states. So the next couple days we spent testing cars, throwing each person behind the wheel to see who made it the best... Who made it the worst. And of course to make fun of Rico's driving skills.

"That's exactly why your ass ain't driving." Roman laughs when Rico smoked a corner of the wall.

"My turn!" I grin, bouncing up from the chair and down the steps. I slide into the Nissan and throw it in gear, taking her back down to the start of our mock track.

"Go for it Southern." Dom tells me over the intercom. I slam it into first gear and we launch from our stopped position. Drifting wasn't exactly my thing but I took her pretty nice around the first corner, then the hair pin. "The last camera caught your back end." He tells me, when I was finished. Giesel comes down the steps and takes the keys from me.

"I'm not sure we can make this work." I mumble to Dom. We were all, with the exception of Rico, precision drivers and if none of us could make this window then we're screwed.

"How's she doing?" Tej asks, looking at the camera.

"That was a solid run." Roman tells her when she was finished. "But the camera still caught you." He adds.

"Lets do it again." She says seriously, sliding back into the car.

A/N: Two chapters today :)


	5. Chapter 5

**At Joe's**

"In national news a about a week ago now there was a confirmed car jacking on a train headed towards Rio. It was reported that 3 DEA agents were killed along with 2 unidentified men. The accused car jackers are still at large and believed to be dangerous. No word yet on who the accused are, the only confirmed information is there were 7 people total." The news announcer on CNN says. Joe's cousin Jon watches Joe stare hard at the TV.

"That's her. She's in Rio." Joe finally mumbles, picking up his phone. He watched as his cousin made an attempt to call her. She didn't answer. She never answered.

"How do you know man? Doesn't seem like the type to murder people." Jon says skeptically.

"She didn't... They were probably in with other people." He sighs.

"Again, how do you know she's in Rio?" Jon asks again.

"I've just got a feeling man." He shrugs simply.

"Yeah, but would you have that feeling if any kind of car related junk came up on the news?" Jon asks, raising his eyebrows.

"I don't think so... I know her well enough to know which jobs pay the best money. Those are the ones she'll go for." He answers, "And Dom was always trying to get her to do stuff with stolen cars and stealing cars when we were together. The whole thing screams Toretto." He adds.

"Nothing you can do about it from here. Especially if she ain't answering your calls." Jon states. "Not only that, but she's a big girl. She's always made it clear she can take care of herself."

"I need to go to Rio..." Joe mumbles, glancing at the calendar on his phone. "I've got 3 days until I'm on my 6 month leave, I could take a trip to Rio." He comments.

"Man, are you hearing yourself right now?" His cousin scoffs. "You're busted up man, you just had surgery and you're about to be out for half a year. You shouldn't even be traveling for the signing that you've got coming up. In a week, the job will probably be over anyway. They'll have either pulled it off or she'll be in prison." Or heaven forbid, dead, he thought to himself. "Plus, even if it wasn't done by then... How would you find her in a place like Rio?" He asks.

"She wouldn't be that hard to find, for me." He answers. "You're right... And I can't get time off before then." He sighs, leaning back into the couch and hitting the power button on the remote to flip the TV off.

"Relax." Trinity says walking out of the kitchen. "If it's meant to be like you're always sayin' it is, she'll be back, and things will eventually work out. Just remember, you can't expect perfect over night. You can't expect anything until you see her again." She states. They both watch as Joe gets up from the couch and retreats upstairs. "You think he's gonna go down there?" She asks Jon softly.

"I don't know what his mind set is right now. If she don't come back soon, I think he'd be down there in a second." Jon replies.

***In Rio***

"That's the piggy bank you ordered?" Tego smirks at Tej as the guys pulled the plywood from around the vault.

"You're kidding me?" He scoffs. "Where in the hell did y'all get one of these?" He asks.

"We had a life before you knew us." Han shrugs.

"Alright. Well, it's gonna take me some time but we've got one problem." Tej says, approaching the vault and pointing to the scanner. "We need Reyes hand print. Without it, we've got jack shit."

"Han. You're up." Dom tells him.

"Sure, stick me with the easy jobs." He replies sarcastically.

"Lets go. I'll drive." Giesel says, grabbing a set of keys. I was kind of getting the feeling that she had a little thing for him. I walk over to our make shift living room and curl up in one of the over sized chairs, pulling out my phone to text Kelly. I couldn't wait to get home, just so that I could see my best friend again.

"How's life and things and such?" Text to Kelly.

"Be better if you were here. Glad you're not in prison. What's up?" Text from Kelly.

"Hopefully not much longer. We're thinking a week at most." Text to Kelly.

"Hey I don't want to panic you, or make you feel guilty... But Joe's injured." Text from Kelly.

My stomach dropped as I read that message. As much as I wanted to move past Joe and pretend that I didn't care, I did care and I couldn't fully move past him. I could push it to the back of my mind and throw on a pretty face but I still love that man.

"Go on..." Text to Kelly.

"He tore something, had surgery last week. He's out of action for at least 6 months." Text from Kelly.

"How do you know all this?" Text to Kelly.

"He talks to me when I come get your mail." Text from Kelly.

"I miss him." Text to Kelly.

It was easy to admit to Kelly. She was my best friend and she knew me, sometimes I think better than Dom or Mia.

"He misses you to I think. He hasn't said anything about Jon and that night, but I can hear it in his voice when he talks. Asks about you every time." Text from Kelly.

"Has Jon been around?" Text to Kelly.

"Not for a while. Saw him a few months ago with Joe and Colby." Text from Kelly.

"How are my ponies?" Text to Kelly.

"Stubborn and hard headed. Like usual. But fat and sassy." Text from Kelly.

"Good. I miss them too. I miss you too :)" Text to Kelly.

"I miss your fuckin ass too! Get home! Gotta go to work, talk to you later." Text from Kelly.

I take a deep breath and mentally slap myself for what I was about to do. The past year of avoiding Joe and trying to forget him was about to come full circle, crashing down on me.

"Kelly said you got hurt, are you alright?" Text to Joe.

It wasn't much, I know, but it was a start and better than nothing at all. Scratch that, nothing at all probably would've been better and a lot less heart ache. The message back was almost instant.

"Can you call me? I need to hear your voice." Text from Joe.

"I'm not ready to talk on the phone with you. I'm sorry." Text to Joe.

"Alright. I'm ok, I tore a tendon in my leg and fractured something, fluid started to gather in my knee, had to have surgery. I'm out for 6 months, possibly longer. How are you?" Text from Joe.

"I haven't been bad, just taking it day by day." Text to Joe.

"You promised me you'd give that life up." Text from Joe.

It literally made me scoff in disbelief.

"I earned the privilege to break that promise when you left me and stopped speaking to me. I had to pay my bills and we both know I couldn't handle a regular job." Text to Joe.

"I know you're in Rio, saw some stuff on CNN about DEA agents and car jackings and put two and two together. Are you safe?" Text from Joe.

I like how he conveniently ignored basically that whole message. The last thing I was about to do was admit that I was in Rio, and face how well he still knew me after such a long time.

"I'm safe." Text to Joe.

That was the biggest lie I've told all day. We were anything but safe right now. The biggest drug dealer that owned this city was after us.

"I'm at my parents for dinner. Can we talk later?" Text from Joe.

"Sure. Have fun." Text to Joe.

"Promise it." Text from Joe.

I roll my eyes at the message.

"Promise." Text to Joe.

***...***...***

"So did he smack that ass... Or grab hold of it?" Tej teases Giesel when she handed him the bikini bottom. She laughs and rolls her eyes at him.

"So is that good?" i ask him.

"Yeah, I can make this work." Tej answers nodding.

"We should get some food." Roman states.

"I second that!" I agree with him. "I am starving." I tell the room.

"Guys. Guys!" Mia calls out, making us all turn and look at her. So much for getting some food. "We've got a problem." She says as we circle around her. There were a bunch of us up on the screen, with big red letters reading "wanted". "The whole team has been burnt." She states.

"Now we're all wanted." Mia sighs.

"Nah, Annabelle isn't up there." Dom says, looking at the faces on the screen. I quickly scanned faces on the computer screen and breathed a sigh a relief when I didn't see my face or name.

"She's never been wanted, or associated with us in anyway. Besides being related." Mia answers glancing at me.

"We could use that." Brian nods.

"Alright, US Diplomatic Security Service issued the warrants." Mia murmurs reading the screen. Agent L. Hobbs."

"Hold on a second..." Brian murmurs clicking a few things on the key board. "Dom, is that the guy that was chasing you?" he asks pulling up an image.

"That's him." I nod. "He saw me..." I murmur a little worried.

"Yeah." Dom agrees.

"Hobbs is leader of the elite task force for the DSS. When the FBI wants to find somebody that's who they call. Because he never misses his mark." Brian explains. "This guy, he's old testimant. Blood, bullets, wrath of God. That's his style."

"And he's hunting us?" Mia asks and Brian nods. "Awesome."

"Dom we gotta move up our timeline." Han states.

"Yeah, but how? We're already crunched as it is." Roman answers. "If anything we need more room to breath."

"Roman's right." Dom states. "Think we need to get some fresh air."

"I want to go along!" I argue with Dom. They were about to go to a race scene in Rio and rile up Hobbs and his men.

"You can't go Southern." He tells me. "You're the only one on that screen that isn't wanted and we've got to keep it that way. You can still go home after this."

"Maybe I don't want to go home." I growl at him.

"You're staying. End of discussion." He tells me laying down the law. I let out a frustrated sigh and cross my arms over my chest, watching as they got in the cars and drove off.

"This sucks." I grumble to Mia. It'd been almost two hours and we hadn't heard jack shit from the guys and I was still pissed off from getting left here.

"You want to go home, and you know it." Mia says in her soft sister like tone. "If you got burnt, you wouldn't be able to see Kelly again... You wouldn't see TJ or Cherry again, you'd kill yourself." She tells me.

"You're right. That would be horrible." I sigh.

"You wouldn't see Joe again." She adds softly, not looking at me.

"Yeah..." I mumble.

"We've got them." She grins at me. A little red dot had appeared on the computer screen, "That's Hobbs." She murmurs picking up the mic. "I've got them on the screen guys, nice work." She tells them.

"Tagged and bagged." Tej says proudly.

"The sooner we finish this job, the sooner I can go home and never have to worry about bills again." I tell her, laying back into the couch. "Might even buy myself another truck." I murmur starting to day dream and she laughs. We're watching the police station cameras when the guys get back.

"Lets hit this mock track again." Dom tells everyone.

"Dom man, this isn't gonna work." I sigh, watching Brian hit every curve perfectly. "There isn't a car fast enough out there to do this."

"Yeah man, we need invisible cars." Han agrees. Dom's face lit up, it was like the light bulb went off in his head.

"And I know just where to get them." He chuckles. "You can come along for this one." He grins at me and I hop up quickly from my chair.

"Finally." I tell him. A few minutes later we're piled in the old black van. Myself, Dom, Brian, Han and Roman headed towards the police lot where they kept their cars. "I want an SUV." I inform them and Roman looks at me like I'm nuts.

"I just can't break her of the big truck junk." Dom explains to him.

"Don't hurt yourselves." Giesel tells us as we crawl out the side door and the windows. My feet hit the pavement on the other side of the fence and I saw her. A Ford Raptor that sat in the corner. Oh yeah, she was mine.

"Do you need some napkins, clean that mess up." Roman teases me.

"In and out guys, lets do this." Dom says, redirecting our attention to the task.

"Listen, this thing is bad fucking ass." I tell the group as I slide out of it back at the warehouse. The guys had raced back, but I laid low getting a feel for the raptor. I could only roll my eyes and laugh as they sped off in front of me, lights flashing and sirens going. I really wanted one of these freaking raptors.

"That's a nice truck." Han agrees.

***...***...***

"Oh... Shit." I mumble seeing Mia walk in with Vince right behind her. Brian looks at me confused before glancing towards where I was looking, he was instantly on his feet.

"It's ok, wait." Mia starts, holding Brian back. "Reyes' guys were waiting for me at the market. Vince saved me." She tells him.

"You hungry?" Dom asks from his car.

"Yeah sure." Vince answers.

"Good, cause you're saying grace." Dom tells him.

"Thanks Vince." Brian tells him, shaking his hand. The rest of the night was filled with family, jokes and food. Mostly we ate Tego's burnt ribs and talked about what we were all going to do with our money.

"I know what I"m gonna do with my money." Rico says to the group setting down a burnt rib on the table. "Buy my man some cookie lessons."

"There you go with that negativity again man." Tego accuses him.

"Oh wow, it's gonna take more than cooking lessons... That's horrible." Roman adds to the teasing. "I heard the dog shelter down the road was hiring, maybe you can get some practice in." He adds and we all laugh.

"Everyone should get some rest for tomorrow." Dom tells us.

A/N: I might put up another chapter later tonight if I get enough good feedback... Which y'all haven't been lacking so I'm not too worried lol :)


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Here's a second chapter today, since y'all were so awesome with reviews :)

"I need to hear your voice." Text from Joe.

"Why do you even want to talk to me?" Text to Joe.

"If you called me, we could talk about that." Text from Joe.

"I can't. Job today that we're getting ready for." Text to Joe.

"Will you be home soon?" Text from Joe.

"I don't know." Text to Joe.

"Please text me when it's over so I know you're not in prison. Will you send me a picture?" Text from Joe.

I chuckle, but hit the camera option and take a quick selfie. Lord knows I wasn't looking my best right now. My hair was a giant mess and I was covered in grease and oil from working on some of these cars but I sent it to him anyway.

"Attached a pic. Text you when I'm done." Text to Joe.

***...***...***

"Hobbs is across the city, we're not going to get a better window." Mia calls from her perch at the computer.

"Lets do this." Dom agrees.

"Hey Dom." Vince says, stopping him. "I've got eyes on the girls." He says referring to Mia and I.

Everyone is stopped short though when men come from every door, shouting at us to get on the ground. Hobbs armored truck comes flying through the wall, smashing Dom's prized muscle car into the wall.

"You just made a big mistake." I hear him say under his breath.

"Took me a while to find that tracking chip. But not as long as it took me to flip the receiver." Hobbs tells him, making a b-line for my brother.

I stand there, completely frozen watching everything that was happening in front of me. Dom was off in a corner fight fist to fist with Hobbs while everyone else was trying to make a run for it. "Get out of here!" Dom shouts at me.

"I ain't leaving you!" I say back to him, reeling back and letting one of Hobb's men have it right in the face. If there was one thing I'd learned from Joe it was how to throw a damn good punch. As if to prove my point I kicked him in the stomach while he was down. It didn't take long for two more guys to come over and neutralize me. One of the men throw a set of handcuffs on me and I can feel the tears prick at my eyes.

It was over.

"Get them in the truck." Hobbs instructs his men. So there we sat, sullen faced in the back of that armored truck. "Call the marshals, tell them to meet us at the airport when we land." He says into a walkie as we drove. It was silent for a few moments until Hobbs yelled, "Ambush!" It was almost indescribable, like watching a silent movie but there was sound if that makes any sense at all. The truck in front of us blew up, the explosion sending me back against the wall of the truck, then yanking me from my seat. I groan in pain when my head met the cold metal seat in front of me.

"Southern!" Dom shouts.

"Ya alright?" One of Hobb's men asks me, pulling me up into the sitting position again. His hand comes up and touches my forehead and we he pulls away from me I can see the blood on his fingers. "You'll be ok." He tells me.

"Wilkes, suppression fire. Shut them down." Hobbs says urgently into the walkie. "Stagger-Step, cover me." He says sliding from the truck. "Watch them." He tells the remaining person.

"Cut us loose!" I shout at her.

"Cut us loose, come on!" Brian agrees. She stares at us for a moment, torn, but finally unties our hands and unlocks our cuffs.

"Get out there! Help them!" I shout at the boys pointing to the back of the truck. "I've always wanted to drive one of these." I murmur, pulling myself up into the driver seat. I watch wide eyed as bullets flew in every direction. Nearly all of Hobb's men were down, and I watched as an explosion sent Hobbs himself flying across the street. It was then that Dom did something I thought he'd never do. He shot the on coming men that were headed towards Hobbs, and pulled him to his feet dragging him towards the truck.

"Go! Go!" Brian shouts at me, slamming the back doors shut.

"Oh my god. Vince." I mutter, looking behind me at the bloody man. He hand a gun shot that was right close to his heart and the blood was literally pumping out of him.

"I'm fine Annabelle, drive." He says in a hoarse voice.

"You're not fine." I say, starting to cry but driving the truck down the road.

"Hey Dom." I hear Vince say in the back. "You gotta meet my son, Nico."

"I will." He assures him.

"He's a good kid." He chuckles. "You know we named him after you. Dominic." He says.

"You've got my word Vince." He says. That was just before Vince passed.

***...***...***

"You were always my brother. I've got eyes on Nico now." I hear Dom say in the other room, before he pulled the sheet over Vince's head. "We need to move, we don't have that much time."

"I can get us the next flight out, we can put Rio in the rear view in the five hours." Han says. I knew that wasn't what Dom was talking about though, he wanted to finish this job.

"Not to run. To finish the job." He clarifies.

"Are you crazy Dom? We can't." Giesel tells him, astonished.

"It's a suicide mission." Roman tells him, then points to Vince on the table. "That's your man over there on the table. Shit is real Dom. The plan is busted, Reyes knows we're coming."

"He's right, they tripled the security at the police station. There's going to be a wall of gunfire." Tej agrees, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Reyes doesn't get away with this." Dom states.

"It's a trap man." Han says, trying to reason with my brother. "You know that."

"You know you're all free to make your own choices." Dom tells us and I scoff, along with everyone else.

"I ain't leaving you." I tell him firmly.

"I'll ride with you." Hobbs says from his seat on the stairs. We all turn and look at him surprised. "I"ll ride with you Toretto, at least until that son of a bitch is dead." He states.

"What's the plan Dom? We can't sneak around anymore?" Brian asks. Apparently we were all back in this game.

"We don't sneak. The only thing he cares about is his money. Pull that and we pull him." Dom smirks.

"Lets do this." I nod, hopping up from my seat.

"We stick with the plan." He tells me, pointing an accusing finger in my direction. I was always known for going rogue at the last and most inconvenient moment. "Stay on the walkie." He adds tossing it to me. I pull myself up into the police Ford raptor and turn her over, turning to the left instead of following them to the right. Han and Roman are right behind me in their own cars. My cell phone buzzes on the seat next to me and I look at it, Joe with his awesome timing.

"You know that bad feeling I get when you're doing something dangerous? Yeah I've got it. Call me." Text from Joe.

Sorry Joe, you're going to have to wait until this job is over. I took a moment to look at the damage on my face, which was a lot more than what I'd thought. Somehow I'd managed a good sized gash across my forehead, a sprained wrist, a few bruised ribs from getting tossed around in the back of that truck and numerous other cuts and scrapes.

"Why didn't someone tell me how homeless I looked?" I mutter to myself, turning the volume up on the walkie when I heard Mia's voice.

"Well the plan is working, you've got every corrupt cop in Rio on your tail. You've got to move fast." She tells the guys. God I wish I could see what was going on right now.

"What's the best route?" Brian asks.

"Keep going straight for 3 blocks, then go left." She answers.

"Spikes ahead!" Brian shouts into the walkie.

"We're not going to fit. Go right." Dom answers.

"It's too tight!" He replies.

"We've got no choice." Dom says, and the walkies go silent for a moment.

"Guys, I'm getting all this chatter... Jesus, did you guys just take out a bank?" Mia exclaims and I laugh out loud.

"Get it!" I call into the walkie.

"Alright, there an alley coming up on your left." Mia says urgently.

"Yeah I got it." Brian answers her. More silence. The silence was killing me. "Alright good job Dom, right hander right here, right hander." Brian finally comes up on the walkies again and I breath a sigh of relief.

"Guys there's a big group coming from the south. You've got to do something now." Mia warns them.

"Go right." Brian says, followed by silence.

"We could use some back up!" Dom says, giving me and the guys the go ahead.

"Yes!" I exclaim, whipping the truck to the right down the street. We were only a few streets over and it didn't take long before Roman, Han and I were right in the action. I slammed on my brakes, sending the car behind me and the car behind him into a spin out. One of the actually rolled once, going right over a water hydrant. "This is awesome!" I shout to myself. To my left Roman looked like he was having a good time too. Pushing his car into the back end of another and sending him spinning into a wall. Han was just ahead of us, pushing a Jetta styled police car onto the side walk.

"You're all clear on your left." Han says into the walkie.

"We're clear on the right too." I add.

"Thanks guys." Dom tells us.

"Anytime." Han replies.

"We'll see you on the other side." Roman says slowing down and taking his first left.

"Be careful you two." I tell them, before taking the ramp up onto the interstate. Han followed close behind me as we headed to the new location that we'd mapped out earlier.

"You guys just carved out a ten second window. Make it count." Mia tells them. The radio went silent for another moment and I chewed furiously on my bottom lip, waiting for the next sigh.

"Hey there's too many of them, we're not going to make it." Brian says, and my heart sinks. My eyes go from the road to the radio.

"You're right we're not. You are." Dom states and my face flushes.

"What are you talking about?" Brian asks him.

"Just let the vault go, get out of there." Mia tell Dom.

"You're a father now Brian." He replies.

"No, I"m not leaving you. You stick with the plan." Brian shouts.

"Don't you fucking leave me Dominic!" I basically snarl into the walkie, tears flowing free down my face. Neither the money or the job was worth it if I was going to lose my brother in the process.

"This was always the plan." Dom says calmly. "Take care of Mia."

"Dom, you listen to me. You cut loose right now." Mia says in a panicked tone.

Then there was silence.

"Dom!" Mia and I both shout at the same time. I threw the car in park at the new warehouse and ran inside, looking at her expectantly. "Damn him!" I shout, hastily wiping the tears from my face. I glared at the vault that sat in the warehouse. Tej was furiously working on a computer that was hooked to it. It seemed like an eternity before we heard the sound of a car pulling up.

"Dom." Mia says, relieved. She walks up to him and wraps her arms around his neck. "That wasn't cool." She tells him.

"You fucking asshole." I tell him, hugging him tight. "Don't do that to me again." I say.

"What about Hobbs?" Mia asks.

We've got a 24 hour head start." Dom replies. "And you're taking the first flight home." He adds, pointing to me.

"I don't want to go without you." I tell him sadly.

"Uhm... Y'all want to open this vault or what?" Tej asks, making us all turn and look at him. I'd totally forgotten about the vault, my mind only thinking about Brian and Dominic. Nervously and anxiously we surround the vault, watching as Tej punches numbers into the keypad in his hands. "Don't be mean baby." I hear him murmur, putting the hand print up to the palm scanner. The red laser crossed over his hand twice, before we heard a click. My mouth drops when he slowly pulls it open and literally, bricks of cash fall from its insides.

"Holy shit." I laugh, a grin of pure astonishment crossing my face. We did it. We pulled off our biggest job ever, and we were about to get away with it. "Ahhhh!" I scream, jumping into Tego's arms and bouncing up and down. Don't think I was the only one celebrating though. Giesel and Han were both standing there with stupid grins on their faces and Mia had Brian wrapped in a huge hug.

"Oh my god, look at all that cash." Roman says in awe walking up to the vault.

"I was serious Dom, I don't want to go without you guys. You can't go back to the states." I say to him a little while later.

"You still have a chance at a normal life." He tells me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You have Kelly and them mangy horses, and possibly still Joe." He says. I'm about to protest again when he stops me. "You gotta go home Southern, talk to that guy. You belong with him."

"And it's not like you won't come visit us." Mia smiles.

"Kelly would be pissed if you didn't go back." Dom adds.

"True." I agree. She would fly her ass across the world just to drag my own back to the house, then she'd chew it the whole way back for thinking of not coming back. "Promise me, you'll stay in touch. Not like Dom in touch, I mean your ass calls me everyday." I tell him.

"I promise." He grins, wrapping his arms around me. "Love you."

"I love you too."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Alright, who's ready for Joe to be back full time? Lol :)

"I just landed. See you at my house after you get off work." Text to Kelly.

Ok, so I was a sap. I couldn't help but cry as I walked out of the airport doors and saw my truck sitting in a parking spot not far away. Kelly had dropped her off earlier. My fingers find the keys under the tire well and I pull myself in, turning it over and listening to the engine rumble to life.

"God I missed you." I say out loud, giving the steering wheel a rub. US Customs gave me a pretty hard time when I tried to get on the plane, I suppose I didn't look too hot with my blue yellowish bruised skin and multiple flesh wounds covering my body. Fucking customs.

"I'm so excited!" Text from Kelly.

I had half a mind to keep driving when I saw Joe outside, washing his Range Rover... God, in only a pair of basketball shorts, but I pulled in anyway and threw it in park. He was at my door in a second, wrenching it open and staring at me. His wide eyed expression turned from shock to worry in 2 seconds flat.

"What the hell happened to you?" He asks me, pulling me out of the truck by my wrist. I wasn't ready for this. A year of being away hadn't prepared me for coming face to face with him again.

"Nothing. I'm fine." I reply feeling small next to him.

"You're busted up, you're not fine." He argues with me. My mouth opens and closes like a fish, but in the end I didn't know what to say. "God, it's good to see you." He says after a moment, pulling me against him hard.

"I thought you hated me, I don't understand." I manage to say to him. He pulls back and looks at me, clearly disappointed before sighing.

"Can I come in?" He asks, pointing to my house.

"Yeah." I shrug, "I gotta get my bags." I tell him, pulling the back door open. There were four duffle bags in the back seat, all full of money.

"Let me help you." He says, grabbing them and slinging a couple over each shoulder. "Jesus, what the hell do you have in here? Bodies?" He grunts.

"Cash." I answer simply. I can feel him glaring a hole through my skull as we walked up to the house and I swung the door open. My house smelled musty. He dumps the bags on the couch, and hesitates before unzipping one of the bags.

"Holy. Shit." He mutters, grabbing a handful.

"Yeah." I shrug. In my head I was contemplating where I would move to. I mean, there was no way that I'd be able to stay here and have to face him every time he came home. To me, everything that happened feels like it was just yesterday and not a year ago.

"I hated you." He admits after a moment. "There was a point a year ago, that I never wanted to look at you, speak to you again." He says and I felt a huge stab of pain in my chest. "I heard that you cut off your ties with Jon. You could have let him off a little nicer by the way." He smirks at me.

"I wasn't aiming on nice." I tell him. "I wanted to get away and forget about you, forget about Jon and everything. What happened with Jon that night, ruined my life. It was the worst decision I've ever made." I admit.

"That's selfish. It ruined mine too." He states.

"I'm sorry." I sigh.

"Will you please hug me?" He asks, his face soft. I bite my lip and nod, walking over to where he stood and wrap my arms around his torso. Like I was actually going to say no to giving him anything he wanted right now. Even after being away from him for a year Joe still felt like the place I needed to be.

"I'm so sorry Joe, about-"

"Lets move past it." He cuts me off. "All the apologies in the world won't make what you guys did go away, or make it any better. I'll never forget it, but we can put it in the past, and I forgive you." He tells me.

"Why are you being so nice?" I ask. I didn't understand. I was expecting the wrath of Joe.

"I missed you Annabelle. As much as I hate it and as much as I wanted to forget about you I can't. I'm not an idiot, I know you regret what happened. So does Jon. He was crushed you know, after that phone call." He tells me.

"I had to make a choice." I shrug. "I know Jon needed me, and I loved him but he wasn't doing my life any favors at the time. I think I'm a horrible person for doing what I did. To both of you."

"You cutting ties with Jon really made me think about things. You were finally willing to give him up to help our relationship."

"But you stopped talking to me. Answering my calls, my texts. And I don't blame you, I wouldn't talk to me either. So I picked up and took a long vacation." i say, walking into the kitchen.

"You know there ain't gonna be food in there." He chuckles watching me pull open the fridge door. Yep, that was empty. "Do you want to come over for dinner?" He offers, sticking a thumb towards his house.

"I really can't." I answer and I watch his face fall, but he recovers quickly. How could he even want to be around me after what I'd done to him? "Kelly is coming over after work, I promised her dinner." I add.

"Where's Dom?" He asks suddenly. This time it was my turn for my face to drop and I didn't recover so quickly.

"Not here." I answer shortly.

"How about tomorrow we get together for beers and you can tell me about the year you've been gone?" He suggests. "And how you came to acquire 4 duffle bags full of hundreds." He adds with a smirk.

"Bring the beer." I agree, following him to the front door.

"It really is, good to see you." He tells me softly.

"See you later." I reply, offering him a small smile before I shut the door. It really hurt my heart to have to look at him, and remember how much I'd hurt him. Most people would have moved past it by now, but the fact that I ruined what would have been a perfect relationship for one night with his best friend wasn't something that I could just sweep under the rug. My guilty feelings would stick with me for a long time.

***...***...***

"I miss you so much!" Kelly squeals running into the house. She found me on the back porch and flung her arms around my neck, squeezing hard. "Jesus, who beat the shit out of you?" She asks, looking me over.

"A truck." I answer. "I missed you too." I smile at her.

"There's duffle bags of cash in your living room, you might want to do something with that." She grins at me.

"Yeah, later." I shrug. "Sit, have a glass of water. It's all I have." I laugh.

"We should go to the grocery store." She suggests.

"Nah. We can do that later too. I'm running on Island time right now." I say. "I missed just sitting here and watching the ocean."

"Rio is on the ocean." She says confused.

"Yeah but I never got a chance to sit and look at it." I sigh.

"Have you seen him yet?" She asks, her head nodding towards Joe's house.

"Sure have." I tell her. "He was happy to see me, what the fuck? I just don't get it Kelly, why in the hell would he be happy to see me?"

"He loves you." She answers simply.

"Again. Why?" I scoff.

"You can't explain love Annabelle." She tells me. "You want to order a pizza?" She asks, changing the subject.

"Oh my god, pizza sounds awesome. With a pepsi." I reply.

"Have you been out to the barn yet?" She asks after ordering from Giovanni's.

"Not yet." I answer. "I'll go out there tomorrow morning. They're probably so mad at me." i chuckle.

"Nah, they'll miss you so much that they'll forget they were mad at you." She laughs. "Dom? Mia?" She asks.

"Are settling into their new homes off a Borneo beach." I tell her sadly. "And I'm here." I add disappointed.

"With me." She adds.

"How long am I going to last without Dominic?" I ask her. Sure I was independent but I relied on Dominic for a lot of things. When the moment came up that I needed to call him and tell him to come over, he won't be able to, because he's halfway across the world.

"You're going to be fine sweety. With all that cash, you shouldn't need him for anything." She states.

"I'm not talking about money Kelly." I grumble.

"Facetime?" She suggests.

"This is going to be so hard." I murmur, kicking my feet up onto the table.

**Over at Joe's**

"She's finally back?" Colby asks a little shocked. He was skyping with Joe right now, he had his lap top sitting on the kitchen counter while he rummaged through the kitchen for something to eat.

"She's back." Joe answers. "And she looks like hell." He adds.

"What do you mean?" Colby asks. "Gross man, I can't believe you still have that pasta in your fridge. It's like 3 months old." He says when he gets a peek into the fridge.

"Yeah..." Joe agrees tossing it right into the garbage. "I mean she had the shit beat out of her. She's got a three inch gash across her forehead, and she's blue, purple and yellow all over." He says finally just grabbing a beer and shutting the fridge. "She looks tired." He sighs.

"Did she say what happened? Where she's been?" He questions. Joe never had told Colby he suspected she'd gone to Rio.

"We're supposed to talk about it tomorrow over a couple drinks." Joe sighs. "That's assuming she doesn't bail out on me again."

"Can I ask you something man, like serious talk." Colby asks.

"Of course."

"Are you hoping to get back with her?" He asks.

"You know bro... And I can't speak for her but I think what we had is worth trying to save. You know? I mean obviously the matrix of the relationship would change for a while, but weighing the pros and cons I think we're salvageable. I love her."

"Cheating is a pretty big con." Colby comments. "You know that you can't just shove it under the rug. You guys would have to talk about it, and you'd have to be prepared to listen and hear junk you probably don't want to hear." He says and Joe nods. "Cheating is usually the outcome of a deeper problem, you've got to figure out what the problem was or is."

"Yeah." Joe mumbles glancing out to the beach for a moment.

"Forgive and forget. You're probably still going to hurt for a long time man, but you've still got to be fair with her. She's probably feeling guilty as hell still herself. Like you can't go throwing this back in her face in a few days, months or years, whatever. I mean that's even assuming that she wants to work things out." He adds, "No offense, you know what I mean."

"I'm not going to approach her right away with it, she was already stressed out when i came over." He tells his friend. "Plus you're right, I've got to feel out the waters and see if she even wants to get back with me."

"You were pretty confident about that at one point." Colby teases him.

"I still am. She still loves me, it's just going to take time to mend." Joe states.

"So... What about Jon?" He asks curiously.

"What about him?" Joe asks back.

"Do you think she'll call him?" He wonders.

"I can't answer that." Joe shrugs.

"Guess we'll see." Colby nods.

***...***...***

I spend nearly all morning at the barn. Got my ass up at the butt crack of dawn to go out and ride, brush and give baths. They were both thrilled to see me of course, and of course Joan had to give me a hard time about being gone for so long. If she only knew that I nearly didn't make it back here. Joe's Range Rover wasn't in the driveway when I pulled up into mine, I was hoping I'd have enough time to hop a shower and put on some clean clothes.

"Is he there?" Text from Kelly.

"Not yet." Text to Kelly.

I'd gotten a missed call from Dom too while I was in the shower, I could call him back later. My heart starts to race when I hear the knock on the front door.

"You're still here." He teases me when I swing it open.

"Funny guy." I smirk, stepping to the side so he could walk in. I follow him out to the back patio and sit down in one of the chairs. "Corona... You remembered." I smile, pulling one from the box.

"Of course I did." He basically scoffs at me. "So, tell me about Rio." He says, wasting no time at all.

"How's that injury of yours?" I ask him, glancing at his wrapped leg.

"It's healing. I'm rehabbing, hoping to get back in the ring early." He says. "Stop avoiding the question, lets hear about Rio." He digs.

"We went down to Rio to steal DEA seized cars." I shrug.

"And...?"

"That's it. That's all we did. Turned out to be a good gig, so we stuck around." I told him.

"How'd you end up with all that cash? Not from jacking cars." He comments looking unimpressed. I roll my eyes, I'd forgotten how amusing his facial expressions were.

"One of our gigs went bad and we ended up going toe to toe with the guy who basically owned the city. He had over 100 million in cash houses around town. We stole it, all of it." I tell him, leaving out huge story pieces.

"When I said we'd talk about it over a few beers I was hoping for the actual story." He chuckles.

"There really isn't much to say." I shrug honestly.

"How'd you get beat up like that?" He asks, his eyes focusing on the deep cut on my forehead. "That looks nasty." he adds.

"It's not that bad." I tell him touching it lightly. "At one point we all got arrested, and the shoved us in the back of this armored truck. The roads in Rio, they suck fucking donkey dick and while someone blew up the truck in front of us... It sent me flying and I slammed my head on the seat in front of me." I explain.

"I think that all made sense." He mumbles. "If you guys got arrested, how come you got to come back and your brother didn't?" He questions.

"Because my brother was already wanted. I took back roads all the way down to Rio, there wasn't a paper trail behind me leading to my brother. Everyone else that showed up, they had plane tickets and stuff. Plus it helps that I don't have a huge criminal record." I shrug. "When we got arrested Hobbs only told the marshals that he had the group and to meet him at the gate, he didn't give out names so I was pretty much able to leave like I wasn't even there."

"You got lucky." He tells me honestly.

"No shit." I agree.

"I'd have lost my junk if you'd have ended up in prison." He mutters.

"Why?" I chuckle. "I'm sure you've moved on by now." I say mostly to myself.

"No, I haven't." he says in disbelief. I don't respond, only take another sip of my beer and stare out at the ocean. "Have you talked to Jon?" He asks.

"No." I reply shortly.

"Are you?"

"No." I repeat.

"He's still upset with you." Joe states.

"And?" I ask.

"And... I don't know." He finally sighs.

"You're so confusing you know that?" I kind of scoff at him and he tilts his head at me. "You made such a fuss about the kind of friendship I had with Jon when we were together... Now I've cut him out of my life, and I'm kinda feeling like you want me to or expect me to get in contact with him again. What the fuck Joe, you can't have it both ways."

"I never said I wanted you to call him." He shakes his head.

"You didn't have to say it. THe way you're asking about it says plenty." I tell him.

"Even if we had no hope of ever working things out, you still wouldn't call him again?" He questions.

"No." I answer. I sigh and pick my cell phone up off the table when it buzzes.

"Parking lot party going on at the NW lot on the beach. Come out!" Text from Kelly.

"Go. Have fun." Joe sighs.

"Do you want to come with me?" I ask him, earning a skeptical look. "What's with the look? If you don't want to go we'll stay, I'm yours for the afternoon."

"I'll go with you." He agrees.

"Lets go." I grin. It'll be nice I think to just go out and have a good time again.

A/N: It's been really difficult to write these next few chapters, but I hope y'all like them :)


	8. Chapter 8

"Can I tell you how I really feel?" Joe asks when we were in the car.

"Lay it on me." I nod.

"I feel like I'm the one that made the mistake. I've kicked myself the past year for not talking to you." He says.

"I made the mistake, not you." I sigh making a right turn.

"I just feel like if I would've handled the situation better, we might be today where we were a year and a half go before the whole Jon thing." He states.

"We. If we would've handled the situation better." I correct him. "Joe none of it was your fault, it was all on me." I say.

"A party in day light is weird, don't you think?" He murmurs, seeing the lot that was filled with street cars.

"Nah." I shake my head. "The cops, they can kick us out but they cant get on us really if it's during the day." I explain to him.

"Joe! Hey!" Kelly greets him when we slide out of the car. "No hard feelings right? About not ratting my bestie out?" She asks, wrapping an arm around around me.

"Nah, we're good." He smiles at her.

"So what's going on, who's here?" I ask her glancing around.

"No one you know, new crowd." She shrugs.

"That's a nice car baby doll." Some kid says walking up to my Camero. He wasn't bad looking, he wasn't Joe by any means but he was still easy on the eyes. I couldn't hold back my grin when I saw Joe shoot him a glare.

"Thank you." I smile, "And I"m not your baby doll." I add, raising an eyebrow at him. He glances at Joe and his eyes get a little wider.

"Yeah sorry man, I wasn't hitting on your woman or anything." He says quickly, putting his hands up. "Got my own." He adds.

"Maybe you should take a walk." Joe says in a low tone, I've heard that tone of voice before once or twice.

"Kinda over protective of a chick you're not with anymore don't ya think?" I tease him, bumping my shoulder against his arm.

"Maybe I'm trying to change that." He shoots back raising his eyebrows at me.

"I'm sorry?" I ask, with another failed attempt to hold back my grin. My heart literally jumped out of my chest when I heard those words come out of his mouth.

"Come on, lets go down to the beach looks like the party extends." He grins shaking his head.

"Yeah! They're surfing and stuff down there, but the waves aren't to awesome." Kelly says pointing to the beach.

"Who's the hottie?" I ask her nodding to the quiet guy behind her.

"I don't know." She shrugs, glancing at the blonde.

"He's not with you?" i ask her confused.

"No..." She shakes her head glancing back at him. Buddy was steady just hanging out.

"Oh... Well, lets go down to the beach I guess." I say. It hardly crossed my mind when I linked my right arm in Joe's left, Kelly looped her arm into my free one and off we went to the beach.

"How'd you get injured anyway? Should you be walking?" I ask narrowing my eyes at him.

"I was thrown out of the ring and I botched the landing. Truth be told, there's no way I could have landed that right, so really it was Dave Batista's fault." He shrugs. "And I"m fine to walk, stop fussing over me." In my peripheral vision I see Kelly grin at us.

"I'm going to go over there, I'll catch up with you." Kelly says pointing towards a group of people that I didn't know.

"What have you been up to the past year?" I ask him curiously. "You know, besides the wrestling stuff." I add.

"Oh you know... Mostly just the wrestling stuff." He chuckles.

"Have you been seeing other women?" I ask softly. Part of me really didn't even want the answer to that question.

"I've tried." He sighs. "They're not y-"

"Guys! We're getting the boot!" Kelly calls to us. In the parking lot there were a few cops cars directing everyone out.

"That didn't last long." Joe mumbles.

"Sometimes they don't." I shrug, "Probably for the better anyway." I add. When we got back to the house there was a car in Joe's driveway, and I was kinda anxious to know who it belonged to.

"My mom is here." He states confused and I breath a sigh of relief. I don't think I could handle seeing another girl over there.

"You weren't expecting her?" I ask him.

"No I wasn't." He murmurs, sliding out of the car. She pulls herself out of her own car when she sees us, and waves with at me with a grin.

"Annabelle, it's good to see you again!" She says to me.

"Good to see you too." I say returning her smile. "I'll see you later." I tell Joe, who nods at me.

***...***...***

"Rumor has it you're back around." Text from Tyler.

Oh.. boy, you're bad news. I sigh and ignore the message. Word must have gotten out that I was back at home, it wouldn't be long before the girls were trying to get a hold of me. My phone buzzed again, probably Tyler.

"Dollface?" Text from Jon.

I stare at the message. Ok I know I've gone on and on about how I didn't want to talk to Jon and that I wasn't going to get a hold of him... And I won't, but I'll admit that I desperately missed him. Still, with that being said I knew that if I wanted a future with Joe, Jon was out of the question.

"I miss you guys." Text to Dominic.

"We miss you too. Are ya alright?" Text from Dominic.

"I'll be ok. Just thinking about you." Text to Dominic.

"There's a show tonight. I don't wrestle obviously but I'm going, would you like to come and see everyone?" Text from Joe.

"Mia will be having her baby in 5 months, you'll have to come out for that ;)" Text from Dominic.

Eeek... I don't know that seeing everyone would be a happy reunion. I stared at his message for a minute before another came in.

"The girls miss you." Text from Joe.

I sighed.

"I'd love to go." Text to Joe.

"Come on over whenever you're ready." Text from Joe.

I took a quick shower and changed into a pair of jeans and a tank top before heading over to Joe's. "Should you be going to the show with you knee and stuff?" I ask him when we get into the car.

"Will you stop fussing over me like that, I'm not helpless." He chuckles. "I thought it would be fun to go to the show and see the guys. You're going to have to see Jon..." He says softer.

"You're setting me up for something." I comment narrowing my eyes at him.

"I am not." He scoffs. "He works there too I can't change that Annabelle." He states. I huff annoyance but say nothing as he pulls into the arena parking garage in Mobile Alabama.

"Oh my god... There she is!" Nicki squeals when we came walking down the hall towards catering. "Annabelle!" She grins wrapping her arms around my neck and jumping up and down.

"Nicki... Nicki I can't breath." I laugh returning her hug.

"God you can't be gone for so long like that." She scolds me.

"I'm sorry." I tell her.

"I missed you." She smiles, glancing at Joe behind me. "Come and find me later ok?"

"I will." I nod. I continue walking with Joe to catering and he pushes open the door. It seemed like nothing had changed, it was the same people, same conversation around us. I had thought that all eyes would be on us and there really wasn't.

"Banana." Colby smiles giving me a hug.

"Hey Colb." I reply, glancing at Jon who was behind him.

"Dollface." He nods at me, but not moving.

"Annabelle." I correct him nicely. "Hey Jon." I smile trying to be friendly even if I was so extremely uncomfortable and awkward right now.

"Annabelle." He says, disappointed. "Good to see you again." He tells me and I nod agreement but say nothing which I could tell didn't go unnoticed. God, I just wanted to throw my arms around him and hug him tight.

"Hungry? You want me to grab you some stuff?" Joe offers, pointing to the food.

"Sure. Anything." I reply sitting down. Jon waited exactly 5 seconds before he sat down and started in on me. "Please... Not now." I sigh.

"No, because if not now it'll be never." He snaps. "I get it. You love Joe, and I respect that and I wish you two the best but you can't play house in Pensacola and pretend I don't exist anymore." He growls.

"She can do whatever she wants." Joe says, sitting down next to me. "Help yourself." He adds looking at me and motioning to the plate.

"Thanks." I mumble.

"Don't let me stop this conversation, you two have to have it at some point." He says taking a bite of an apple.

"I will stop calling you dollface if you want, I'll keep a respectable distance, I'll do whatever you want me to do just please... Stop avoiding me like the plague." He sighs.

"Fine." I shrug.

"Don't hold your feelings back." Joe tells me.

"I've got nothing else to say. Jon I want to be your friend, I do, but 'friend' means friend. We can't be how we were before, I didn't see it at the time but it was totally inappropriate." I reply look at Joe who looked less than impressed. "I'm going to go find Nicki." I say starting to get up from the chair.

"No you're not." Joe stops me, pulling me back down into my seat. Colby chuckles, probably laughing at how pissed off I looked right now. "Good for you to sit here. Have some pineapple, I got it just for you." He adds pushing his plate at me.

"We gotta go change." Colby says after a while. "Getting to be close to that time." He adds.

"See you guys later." I tell them, looking at both Colby and Jon.

"We need to talk." Joe finally says. "About us." He adds, glancing down at the table before back up at me.

"I'm kind of under the impression that this isn't an 'us' right now." I say narrowing my eyes.

"Right now, there isn't." He agrees slowly. "I'm just gonna say it-"

"Please don't." I shake my head. "Don't tell me anything right now. We can talk about it later when we're back home. If whatever you were going to say was bad I'd be a wreck here and I don't want anyone to see that, I don't want you to see that." I scoff. "And if it's something good, I'd rather we were in one of our houses, in private." I say.

"Ok." He agrees after a moment. "Lets go watch the show, yeah?" He offers, tossing the empty plate into the garbage.

"Yeah." I smile.

***...***...***

"Knock knock." I hear Joe say from my doorway. It was late, like super late. We'd gotten in from the show at about midnight and it was somewhere around 2 am now. With a confused expression I step out from the kitchen and cock my head at him. "I saw your light was still on." He mumbles, his eyes traveling up my legs. I was in my usual bedtime attire, panties and a tshirt. Mentally I kick myself for wearing that damn Shield shirt to bed.

"Come on Joe, you've seen these before." I lightly tease him. "I'm making banana boats, do you want one?" I offer.

"Oh wow, I haven't had one of those in a long time." He says, "I'd love one." He nods.

"Come in." I nod walking back into the kitchen. A banana boat was a whole banana sliced down the middle, inside you put marshmallows and chocolate and strawberries if you fancied, then you wrapped it in foil and threw it on the grill for a couple minutes, or the oven in the case because it was easier for me. "So... You want to talk?" I ask him, leaning against the counter.

A/N: I love you guys! :) Review!


	9. Chapter 9

He nodded and watched as I turned around and pulled the banana boats out of the oven, putting each on a paper plate and setting his in front of him. "Thanks." He murmurs.

"Don't sugar coat anything." I sigh, biting my lip.

"I want to work things out." He says calmly. "As long as you feel the same." My heart screamed and I was jumping up and down inside but I managed to stay chill on the outside.

"Why?" I ask. "And yes Joe, more than anything." Yes, I was totally happy that he wanted to work out issues out but why? We all know he deserved so much better than what I am.

"Because nani, I love you." He sighs. "I love you and I want to fix us."

"Say it again." I smile.

"I love you." He repeats.

"No... The part where you called me Nani. I missed that." I admit with a small smile.

"Nani." He murmurs with a smirk. I'd forgotten how sexy that word just rolled off his tongue.

"Every time you called me Annabelle, I cringed. I felt like I was always in trouble." I chuckle, shaking my head.

"Well, ya kinda were." He teases me, taking a bite of banana and chocolate.

"True." I agree with a shrug.

"Are you absolutely sure you're done with Jon? You have no feelings for him at all?" He questions, raising an eyebrow at me.

"I don't have feelings for Jon." I assure him. "We don't have anything."

"Jon's dating one of the girls, I don't think you met her. Her name is Renee." He tells me, gauging my face for a reaction. I don't think he was expecting the one he got though.

"That's great news!" I exclaim, "Is he happy with her?" I ask him.

"Well, so far." He shrugs.

"Good, I'm glad he found someone." I smile. I take another bite of banana and yawn, it was nearly 3 am and I was pretty tired.

"You're tired?" He asks.

"Yeah." I laugh, followed by another yawn.

"Lets go to bed Nani." He says. He tosses the left over foil into the garbage and walks around the kitchen island. I bite my bottom lip as I glance down and see the bulge in his sweat pants. "See what you do to me?" He says, pulling me against him and pressing his hardness against my abdomen. "What you still do to me?" He murmurs against my ear. There was no making it to the bedroom at this point, we were about to break in my dining room table. My fingers run along the insides of his sweat pants, teasing his skin. "Come here." He growls, picking me up and setting me on the kitchen table. Any kind of rational thinking was out the window as I pushed his pants down his legs, all I know is that I missed him, I loved him, and this felt right. I reached down and took his length in my hand, stroking it and pressing my lips to his bare chest. "Up." He says, and I raise my ass off the table just long enough for him to drag my panties down my legs. His lips were on my neck, biting the soft flesh while his hands roamed the skin under my shirt before pulling it up over my head and tossing it somewhere behind him.

"You are taking your time huh?" I mumble, continuing to run my hand up and down his hardness. Joe had always been the dominant one in the bedroom in our relationship, and I never had a problem letting him have his way with me. He lets me stroke him while one of his hands palms a breast, he also leans down and kisses me. I part my lips slightly, giving him access to slip his tongue in my mouth and wrestle against my own.

"I'm in no hurry. I haven't touched you in over a year." I whispers when we break apart. His fingers find my wetness and I take in a sharp breath as they slide over my entrance. He dips a finger inside of me, followed by a second and used his thumb to circle my clit. It definitely wasn't going to take me long to reach my limit. After more than a year without sex I was more than ready. I let go of his length and gripped his biceps, throwing my head back as he continued his assault on my clit. "Nani..." He murmurs, running his tongue along the shell of my ear and biting gently on my ear lobe.

"Oh my god..." I moan when he dropped to his knees and replaced his thumb with his tongue. I laid back on the table writhing and tangled my fingers in those raven colored locks, encouraging him to continue. "Joe..." I grind against him, feeling my orgasm get closer. When I came, which didn't take long, I bucked so hard off the table that he had to hold on to my hips to keep me on the smooth, wood surface. He didn't stop though, only continued to twirl his tongue across my clit while I was convulsing wildly, and when I finally stopped squirming and moaning, he raised himself up off his knees standing between my legs with an accomplished grin. I was panting, searching for any air that I could suck into my lungs.

"You are so fucking sexy when you're screaming my name." He tells me, leaning down over the table and pulling a kiss from my lips. I felt the head of his cock glide over my clit to my entrance and he pushes into me with an easy thrust. His hands gripped my hips as he proceeded to pump in and out of me at a steady pace. After a few minutes he lifts my right leg up over his shoulder, kissing my calf and using it as leverage to thrust harder. Joe hadn't lost his touch. I wasn't stupid, I know he had to have slept with another girl or two in the year we were apart but he still knew exactly how to touch me and drive me right over the edge. With every stroke his length brushed my Gspot and I was quickly loosing it again. He suddenly lets my leg back down and leans his body over me, resting his elbows on either side of my head. I could feel some of his body weight on me and I rolled myself against him, wanting to feel his skin right against my own. "Annabelle, I wanna hear you scream my name when you cum." He says huskily, pulling nearly all the way out and pushing slowly, agonizingly slow, back in. The movement was slowly teasing my Gspot, and I moaned loud.

"Mmmmm..." I groan, wrapping my legs around him and digging my fingers into his shoulders. My nails rake down his back when he suddenly snaps his hips into me. "Joe!" I cry out, my world going fuzzy. My back arched up off the table and my skin was on fire against his own.

"Holy shit..." He groans as my walls squeezed his length. "Annabelle..." He came right after me with a throaty growl and we laid on the table for a few minutes, panting and sweaty trying to catch our breath. I let my legs unravel from his waist and sigh as my muscles start to relax. My fingers run through his hair and trace little designs over his back as I wait for him to be able to move again. "Are you ready for bed?" He murmurs. I could feel his lips move against my skin and it gave me little goosebumps.

"I don't know if I can make it up the steps." I admit. My fingers were still tangled in his hair and I let out a little whine of protests as he pushed himself off the table. I was quickly silence though when he scooped me up in his arms and headed for the stairs. He lays me across the bed and I shimmy under the covers.

"Come here." He says, sliding his arm under my neck and massaging my back with his fingers. I slide my arm across his torso and relish the old feeling of his muscles under my hands. "I missed you." He says again. It didn't matter how many times he told me, the words would never get old.

"I missed you... I love you, so much." I say softly pressing a kiss to the stuble on his jaw.

"I love you too, Nani." He replies, his hands running through my hair. "Good night."

"Night Joe." I yawn.

***...***...***

When I woke up the next morning, well, when I glanced at the clock it was actually afternoon. 2:23 in the afternoon. We hadn't moved from how we went to bed, my head was still on his chest and his arm was still around my waist. "Joe..." I whisper, reaching up and kissing his cheek. His grip tightens around me as he stretches under my body, "I thought you might have been a dream." I admit to him.

"I wasn't sure I'd ever wake up to you in my arms again." He admits when his eyes flutter open.

"You and me both." I agree. "Should we be talking terms? Like I don't know how to go about this now." I sigh tracing his abs.

"Our relationship isn't a contract Nani." He chuckles. "I think we've pretty much talked out how we feel when you got home. I want to start again, with a clean plate. Nah, we aren't going to be perfect right away but hopefully we will be again soon."

"I don't deserve you." I mumble, resting my chin on his collar bone.

"But you're stuck with me." he says playfully. "So since we've wasted half the day away in bed... What do you want to do for the rest of it?" He asks.

"How about we go to the grocery store, and I'll make you dinner?" I suggest, "Maybe a fire at your house after that." I add.

"That sounds awesome." He quickly agrees.

"What can I make you?" I ask. We both glance at the nightstand when my phone goes off.

"Your brother is calling you via facetime." He says, handing me my Iphone.

"Hey." I greet him, sliding the answer button over.

"Southern." He smiles, "And Joe." He adds a bit surprised.

"How are ya man?" Joe asks him. He had one arm still around me, and the other he lifted up and placed behind his head.

"I'm not doin' too bad. What's goin' on with you guys?" Dom asks curiously. "Look like you're still in bed, or did I inturupt something?" He teases.

"Nah, we went to bed late last night." I tell him. "We were about to go to the store and get junk for dinner. How are you? How's Mia?" I ask.

"Everyone here is good. Mia has quite the baby bump now, I'll send you a couple pictures. She just had a doctor appointment and everything looks good, says to call her when you get a free shot." He answers. "You guys look cozy." He comments, though I knew it dug slightly deeper.

"We're working things out." I answer him.

"I'm glad." He smiles. "I just wanted to call and check in with you, since ya never returned my message the other day." He adds, narrowing his eyes at me.

"Sorry." I mumble.

"I'll talk to you later. Love you." He tells me.

"I love you too." I reply.

"Later man." Joe tells him.

"Bye guys." He says before the screen went black.

"What are you hungry for?" I ask Joe, crawling over him and out of the bed.

"That spaghetti you make, with the turkey sausage and garlic." He answers, "Maybe some big pieces of toast and asparagus." He adds.

"That sounds really good. I was kinda afraid I'd have to choke down meatloaf tonight." I call from the closet in a playful tone.

"That can be tomorrow night." He chuckles. "Where are my pants?" He ponders to himself just outside the door.

"On the kitchen floor probably." I smirk.

"Do I have anything here? Or did you toss everything?" he questions walking into the closet.

"Your stuff is where you left it." I answer.

"You didn't throw anything out?" He asks a little surprised.

"Why would I throw anything away? Though I think I took almost all your shirts with me to Rio." I admit with a shrug.

"I still have your stuff too." He states, pulling on a pair of jeans. "Lets go to the store."

***...***...***

"Can I ask you something?" Joe asks, watching me slave over the stove. I answer with an 'mmhmm and continue to cut the asparagus into smaller pieces. "Is Jon good in bed?"

"You mean, 'better than you'?" I question him, looking up from the greens.

"More or less." He shrugs.

"I don't remember." I reply honestly. "It was a year ago and I was hammered."

"Are you just saying that because you don't want to tell me he's better?" Joe smirks with raised eyebrows.

"How many women did you sleep with while I was gone?" I ask, putting a hand on my hip.

"Two." He responds. "The first one I couldn't even finish because all I thought about was you... I thought it might have just been a fluke or something, but it happened with the second one too. Two unsatisfied customers." He chuckles.

"Anyone I know?" I ask curiously.

"One." He mumbles, meeting my eyes.

"Ugh." I roll my eyes. "Summer Rae."

"She was the first one." He states, "The second was just some girl from the bar. Never could pick up the right type at the bar." he adds with a shrug. "How many did you?" He asks.

"None." I reply, tossing the greens into a steamer pot. He raises his eyebrows at me in question, "No really, I'm not really into Hispanic guys and that's kind of all there is in Rio. Besides the not so smart tourists."

"I feel like an asshole." He chuckles.

"Don't. No man can keep it in his pants for a year." I say.

"I was just trying to get over you." He sighs.

"Joe... It's okay." I tell him, walking around the island to where he sat. "We were both trying to move on, and I'm not about to judge you for whatever you did while we weren't together." I add running my fingers through his dry hair. He sighs and his eyes close as I continue to brush through his locks. "So I was thinking of visiting a friend that lives in Atlanta soon, do you want to come with me? You know, since you've acquired all this free time?" I smile.

"Who's in Atlanta?" He questions, opening his eyes.

"His name is Jamie." I answer, walking around the island to check on my spaghetti sauce. "Though when he's in drag, which is most of the time, he prefers Jessica." I add, throwing a smirk over my shoulder at him.

"A cross dresser." Joe comments with an unreadable expression.

"Yeah he is, but he's having surgery soon. I think Transgender is the official term." I shrug.

"That's an expensive surgery." He states. "One which you're paying for...?" He questions. I'd known Jamie for a very long time, and I knew how much he wanted this. I also know how hard it is to save money on a minimum wage job.

"If he'll let me." I answer. "Do you want to pull out a couple plates?" I ask him.

"That's very nice of you." He says as he pulled two plates out of the cupboard and kissed my cheek. "Yeah, Atlanta sounds fun. Even more fun because I won't be working." He chuckles.

"Dinner is ready." I inform him sitting down at the kitchen table.

"Want me to make you a plate?" He offers. "Since you've conveniently just sat down after informing me dinner is ready." He smirks.

"Nah, I'm not hungry yet. You eat." I smile.

"Did you poison this?" He asks narrowing his eyes at me playfully.

"Rat poisoning." I nod, "You'll hardly feel it." I add with a shrug.

"You're such a bitch." He laughs setting his plate on the table and sitting down next to me.

"You missed it." I wink.

"I did." He agrees, "We'll go light the fire after this." He says softly glancing outside.

"I"m going to go upstairs and change into something comfortable." I tell him, pushing my chair back. "I"ll be right back."

A/N: So far so good! :) I love it when y'all review :)


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: I wasn't going to update till tomorrow or Tuesday... But here's a special treat for Mother's day :) Happy Mother's day to any moms who are reading my story/ies :)

"Oh mah gawd Annabelle... He is so sexy." Jamie grins as I introduced him to Joe. "They call you the power house, and now I know why hunny." He smirks making Joe blush a deep color red, me on the other hand... I couldn't breath I was laughing so hard. "Mmm... Red isn't your color sweety." He chuckles.

"It's really not." I laugh with Jamie.

"Girl, I missed you!" He exclaims throwing his arms around my neck. "I've got a drag contest tonight, you two have just got to come and watch it." He insists.

"Like I'd miss that." I basically scoff. "We'll be there." I tell him glancing up and Joe who nods. We'd just stopped in to the hair depot to see him at work before we headed to the hotel we booked for the weekend. Well, that Joe booked, since he insisted that he paid for it.

"Jamie, you have a head in shampoo." His boss says from across the room.

"We'll go, I just wanted to say 'hey'." I say quickly.

"See you later girl." He grins, heading back behind the counter to work.

"How come I never heard about him while we were together?" He questions, watching Jamie walk away.

"Because while we were together Jamie was in Africa so we didn't talk much." I answer. "Lets go, I could use a nap before this drag show."

"Never thought I'd end up at a drag show..." He murmurs, sliding into the driver seat of the Range Rover. We drove Joe's car up here since it was only like a 6 hour drive. It was nice to just play some music and jam out and be goofy with him again.

"It'll be fun, I promise." I grin.

"What is acceptable clothing for a drag show?" He asks curiously.

"Want to borrow one of my dresses?" I tease him. "You know... I don't think it matters what you wear. Guys are going to hit on you all night." I chuckle. He looks at me his eyes getting a little bit wider. "Oh don't be a baby, no one is taking you home. Except me, of course." I tell him.

"Why do I feel like I'm going to be begging for your protection tonight." He mutter shaking his head.

"Just keep an open mind and you'll be fine." I smile, resting my hand on his knee.

***...***...***

"Can I ask you something?" Joe questions when we were in the hotel and unpacking some of our junk. I give an 'mmhmm' in response, continuing to fold my clothes. "Why did you cheat?" I look up at him and my stomach is instantly in knots. "There has to be a reason." He adds when I don't respond right away.

"I don't know..." I murmur. I glance nervously down at the bed and back up at him.

"You do know. You did it." He growls.

"God Joe, it was year ago, I was drunk, I don't remember why I did it." I tell him, throwing my pants on the bed. "I thought we were starting this off again with a clean plate." I mutter unimpressed.

"You're unbelievable sometimes." He grumbles, making a move for the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" i ask him, making a desperate grab for his arm. He yanks it out of my grip and glowers at me. Obviously we weren't going to be able to start off with a clean slate, he clearly wasn't over it.

"I need to take a walk." He tells me in that low, warning tone of voice.

"Please don't go Joe. Don't leave me." I plead with him. I didn't care how desperate I may have looked right now, I wouldn't be able to handle another 'walk away' from him.

"I'm not leaving you, I'm frustrated." He sighs.

"I wanted to sleep with Jon, because I wanted to know what it'd be like." I admit. "There was this dangerously attractive quality about him that I couldn't get away from." I sigh, looking anywhere but him.

"Wow, it'd have almost been better if you'd have just lied. Just said that I was ignoring you, not giving you enough attention and that was your way of acting out." He scoffs. "You fucked him because you could and it was convenient.." He shakes his head.

"I'm sorry." Was all I could come up with.

"You should be." He comments. "I shouldn't have even asked, just kept pretending that it didn't bother me."

"No. Because then you'd just blow up in my face a year down the road. I don't want you to ignore the fact that I cheated on you. Joe, I betrayed you, your trust, your faith in me, all of it. You should be furious." I tell him.

"I am."

"Yell at me. Tell me how much of a ridiculous, horrible two timing bitch I am... Something." I say. My face was flushed red and I was pretty close to crying.

"I'm not going to say any of that, jesus we're not 16 and in high school." He scoffs. "You're cutting of my blood supply, I'm not leaving." He tells me, looking down at his arm. My fingers were white from holding onto his elbow, and there were five little nail indents in his tattooed skin.

"Sorry." I murmur.

"I tried to pretend like it was all fine, but it's not. I feel like I can't trust you at all, I want to, but I can't. Shit, I wouldn't even leave you alone with the cross dresser!" He exclaims. I just stand there, dumbfounded with my lips pursed. "The whole year you were gone, yeah I was fucking worried. I constantly worried about you, and I constantly missed you and when you came back I was so glad you were back that I thought I could just let it all slide. I can't, I just can't." He says, raking a hand through his hair and sitting on the edge of the bed. "I thought that Danielle was low, but what you and Jon did, it was lower."

"Yeah..." Was all I could come up with.

"That's it?" He snorts a laugh.

"I don't know what to fucking say Joe." I say, finally losing it. "There is nothing I can do that will make me being a cheating whore any fucking better, and all this apologizing is only making me sound like a broken record. What do you want me to do? Tell me? I'll do anything you want. Fucking anything." I say, hastily wiping the tears from my face.

"There's nothing you can do." He shrugs. "The only thing that heals things like this, is time. I guess we're just going to have to give this as much time as it needs." We didn't talk much after that, but I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be his only outburst. It took a few weeks for this one to build, I really didn't want to face another.

***...***...***

"Hold on... This is a gay club." Joe mumbles, grabbing my elbow before we could even get to the doors.

"You think a drag show would be in any other place?" I basically scoff. "Are ya scared?" I tease him, watching as he glanced wearily back at the entrance. I was really trying hard not to let our heavy stuff from earlier get to me tonight. I was here for Jamie tonight and to support him in his show.

"People are going to think I'm gay." He states.

"No one is going to think you're gay. You're there with me." I say to him, "Guys are going to flirt with you, but you'll be fine. Have you really never gone in a gay bar before?" I ask him a little surprised.

"No."

"Wow..." I murmur. "There's a first for everything. Come on." I say. I lace our fingers together, half expecting him to pull them from my hand but he didn't, and pull him along inside behind me. "Miss Jessica..." I grin walking up behind him at the bar.

"You made it! Mmmm... And you brought that hunk of a man with you." He says giving Joe a once over. Joe didn't put much effort into looking good tonight, he was in jeans and a tshirt and his hair was pulled back into a pony tail... But I"m pretty convinced he looks good regardless of attire.

"Hey." Joe greets him.

"Well hey lover." Jessica grins.

"Be nice Jess, he was scared to come in here." I tease. Joe doesn't say anything but his hand creeps up the small of my back and he wraps his arm around my shoulder.

"Bartender! These two need a drink!" Jess calls to the guy, who was also in drag, behind the bar. "We gotta loosen him up a bit." He chuckles.

"What can I get you sweety?" He asks us.

"I'll have Southern Comfort and Dr. Pepper please." I smile.

"Corona is good." Joe states.

"You should try the angry orchard and throw some fireball in it." I suggest. The bartender looks from Joe to me and back to Joe before he shrugs.

"Sure, I'll try that." He agrees. A minute or so later he sets it in front of us and I watch Joe take a sip of his drink. "Whew, I can only have one of these." He comments.

"Sweet huh?" I ask.

"Very." He nods. "That'll get you hammered quick." He comments motioning to my drink.

"Oh baby, I"m counting on it." I wink. He looked more than amused after that comment. With a few more of these in my system, I won't care about much of anything. "You have yet to get drunk with me." I add.

"You may get your wish, not sure there's enough booze behind the bar to get me through the night." He chuckles.

"You've got to cheer for Jessica when he comes out." I tell him after a while. The drag show was just about to start and we were at a table next to where they'd be walking.

"Hey darlin'." A guy greets Joe, walking up to our table. The guy was dressed in a super short bright blue dress that had one shoulder and he had on a pair of sky high black heels along with ridiculous make up. "How are you sweety? Can I buy you a drink?" He offers.

"Oh, no thank you." Joe answers offering him an awkward smile and showing him a still half full drink. I could tell by his body language that he was uncomfortable, but he was being a good sport about it.

"Wow, look at those muscles." Another guys says, who must have been friends with the first one. I grin and watch in amusement as the man runs his fingers over his bicep and gives it a squeeze. "So sexy." He winks.

"Thank you." Joe murmurs, glancing up at me.

"Oh hunny, I wish gay boys looked like that. You're a lucky woman." The guy says to me, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Thank you." I smile, nodding in agreement.

"Would you like a drink sweety? I'll getcha something." He offers motioning to the bar.

"I've hardly dented this one, but thank you." I reply. He nods and I chuckle as the two guys walk off. Joe immediately scoots his chair directly next to mine. "You handled that awesome." I say to him.

"I've never been hit on by a guy before." He murmurs.

"I could tell." I laugh. "Look Jessica!" I tell him, pointing to the stage. "Go Jessie!" I exclaim giving him a few whoops.

"Get it Jessica!" Joe calls, clapping his hands together. It was so much fun to just be out with Joe, just the two of us again. I was so lucky to have him back in my life. "What?" He asks when he noticed me staring at him.

"Nothing." I shrug with a smile. He grins and rests his hand around my hip. "Kinda fun when you're loosened up huh?" I ask him. He'd had a few drinks.

"I'm fun all the time." He corrects me.

"Yes... All the time." I tease him.

"Do you want to go to the aquarium tomorrow?" He asks. Atlanta had an amazing aquarium I'd heard, but we hadn't even had a chance to get to it, and Joe knew how much I loved marine life.

"That sounds good." I tell him running my fingers through his pony tail.

***...***...***

"Why didn't you go to school for something like marine biology?" Joe asks as we walked through the hallways of the fresh water fish tanks. "You love this junk." He adds.

"Because my whole life has been cars and racing, I finished high school and that was it for me." I admit with a shrug.

"It's not too late to go to college, it never is." He responds. "I'd have no problem paying for you to go to school." He says. He laces our fingers together as we walked and looked at the fish.

"I don't need you to pay for school for me." I say to him with a roll of my eyes.

"We're really going to have to talk about this money situation." He sighs. "We've barely been back together for a few weeks and you argue when I want to pay for things. Just because you have money, doesn't mean I can't pay for things anymore. Really, you should put some of that away and save it towards something." He tells me.

"I was thinking about buying another truck." I state. He shakes his head and sighs, that obviously wasn't what he was getting at.

"I was thinking more along the lines of like retirement money, or saving for a house or something." He tells me with that unamused look.

"I have a house." I shrug.

"You have a truck." He rebuts.

"Yeah, but you can never have too many vehicles." I smile.

"Money like that would come in handy when there's more than just us to think about." He says. I squint my eyes at him and tilt my head.

"Like a family?" I ask.

"Yes."

"We've been back together less than a month and you're already thinking about a family?" I question a little surprised. "You can't 180 on me like this. I can't handle it." I say. I watch a family walk by us, two kids and one in a stroller.

"Seriously? If you stared any harder at the guy he'd have felt the penetration from your eyes." He mutters with a roll of his eyes.

"God, there's that 180 again. I know you're your hurt, and you feel that you can't trust me. I understand. But we really need to get on the same page, and for the record I was looking at the baby in the stroller." I sigh. Maybe we can't work this out. Are we too damaged to fix this?


	11. Chapter 11

"Kelly I don't know what to do... I've just got this horrible feeling in my stomach that he is going to leave." I tell her. "Like he's fine, then the next minute he's totally not fine. I feel like I'm always quietly walking around a sleeping bear."

"Come on, you cheated on him. You can't expect candy and rainbows." She states. "Put yourself in his shoes, if he had sex with another girl while you were together what would you do?" She questions, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I wouldn't take him back like he has me." I say to her honestly. "He's a better person than I'll ever be."

"Yes he is." She agrees bluntly. "You've got to give him credit for trying."

"He totally blew up at the hotel. He'll never trust me again." I tell her.

"I can't make that better for you." She says. I don't respond, only sigh and rest my head on the counter.

"And I"m so confused, I don't know how to act. When he's frustrated with me I feel like I should keep my distance. He can be fine, and we'll be having a great time, and kiss and be sweet with each other, then do a total attitude flip in like 2 seconds." I groan.

"He just needs time. You guys are going to be rough for a few months." She comments. "Where is he anyway?" She asks.

"He's at the gym." I sigh. "Probably thinks I'm screwing all the neighbors."

"Please, don't be so over dramatic." She rollers her eyes. As if on cue my phone goes off with a text from Joe.

"What are you doing?" Text from Joe.

"Sitting in the kitchen, talking to Kelly. How's the work out?" Text to Joe.

"I'm not giving up." I tell Kelly seriously. "I'm in this for the long haul."

"Till another guy like Jon comes around?" She shoots back and my jaw literally drops.

"You fucking bitch." I growl at her.

"I know, that was mean and you know I didn't mean it." She sighs. "But that's probably how Joe is feeling, you needed to hear it."

"Just finished up. Want something from BWW?" Text from Joe.

"Sure :) The usual." Text to Joe.

"God, that was fucking mean." I tell her again.

"I'm sorry." She shrugs.

"Alright, see you in a bit." Text from Joe.

"You just needed a good dose on how he feels." She tells me, "You're my best friend and I know that you only want him, but he doesn't know that. You need to make him see it."

"I know." I sigh.

"I've got to go to work. I'll see you later alright?" She states, slinging her purse over her shoulder. "Love you."

"Love you too." I say, watching her leave out the living room. My head was still on the counter when Joe came home, and he furrowed his brows at me but said nothing as he sat the wings on the counter.

"Are ya sick?" He questions as he pulled stuff from the bag.

"I'm fine." I sigh, pulling myself off the counter and sliding out of the seat. "You want something to drink?" I offer, walking over to the fridge.

"Coke is fine." He mumbles. "What's wrong?" He finally sighs. We hadn't really talked much through our meal.

"Nothing, I'm fine." I say glancing up at him.

"You're not fine. Buffalo Wild Wings is one of your favorites and all I've watched you do the past half hour is push a wing around your plate." He states unimpressed.

"Yeah, I"m not as hungry as I thought." I say, offering a small smile. I slide off the kitchen stool and put my food back into the box it came in, before placing it in the fridge. I look at the front door, confused where there were knocks on it. Of course the first thing that came to my mind was 'police'.

"It's Colby. He said he'd stop by on their way to Miami." He answers my silent question. "Come in Colb!" Joe calls to the door.

"Hey guys." He greets us, walking into the kitchen.

"Hey Colby." I smile.

"Banana." He nods. Colby was kind of frigid with me, it wasn't hard to tell that he wasn't too happy with my choices as of late either. "How was the gym man? I tried to get here earlier to go with you but traffic was rough in Mississippi."

"It wasn't too bad. Leg is a little sore." Joe shrugs.

"Hungry?" I ask Colby, "I just put some wings in the fridge." I offer.

"No thanks, I stopped at Whole Foods earlier and picked up some stuff." He answers. My phone buzzes on the table and I see Joe glance wearily at it, and tilt his head to look at the caller ID.

"Hey girl." I answer.

"What's up girl? Are you home in Pensacola?" Nicki asks on the other end.

"We were just eating dinner, yeah why what's up?" I ask her.

"We just passed into Florida on I10, you should come to Miami with us. We're planning a girls night." She says excitedly.

"I'd have to talk to Joe about it first..." I murmur, glancing at the grey eyed man who was more than interested in my phone call.

"Well talk to him quick. We'll stop by anyway, just to say hi if it's alright." She says.

"Sounds good. See you in a bit." I reply before hanging up the phone.

"What did she want?" Joe asks curiously.

"She wants to know if I wanted to go to Miami with them. Something about a girls night." I answer. "They're stopping by, in a few minutes." I add. He stares at me and I can pretty much see the wheels in his head turning. "I don't want to go though." I shrug, playing it off. He didn't trust me to go. That was obvious.

"The lie detector test determined, that to be a lie." Colby basically scoffs.

"Mind your business." I glower at him.

"If you want to go. Go." Joe says simply. I had a feel that was more of a loaded statement than he was making it seem.

"I'd rather spend time with you." I say sweetly and Colby rolls his eyes. I glare at the two toned man and let out an aggravated huff, "I'll be in the garage." I say, leaving my phone on the kitchen counter and walking out the garage door. Besides Kelly it didn't seem like anyone really liked me right now. The only reason the girls wanted to hang out with me is because they were still not in the loop about the Jon thing. I'm cleaning out my truck when the Bella twins pull into the driveway.

"Hey chica." Nicki says.

"Hey." I call back, neck deep under my seat. I slide out of the lifted Chevy and smile at her.

"What's wrong?" Bri asks.

"Why does everything keep asking me that?" I mutter unimpressed. "Nothing is wrong, I'm fine." I lied. Both girls give me a skeptical look, but take the attention to the door as Joe and Colby walk outside.

"Ladies." Colby greets them.

"Hey guys." Both girls say in unison.

"Why don't you go pack a bag?" Joe asks, sticking a thumb towards the house.

"I don't want to go without you." I tell him.

"I'm going too. I just booked us a room, I'll ride with Colby." He replies, and I pull my bottom lip between my teeth in an unsure way. "We'll be right behind you guys, have some girl time." He smiles. A Joe smile, a sincere Joe smile... Because yes, there was a difference in his smiles.

"Alright." I cave. "You want to help me pack some stuff?" I offer to Nicki and Bri.

***...***...***

"You look tired, and sad." Nicki comments in the car.

"Well I am tired." I admit.

"And sad." Bri states.

"I"m not sad." I insist, raking a hand through my hair.

"Well you're not right." She tells me.

"Joe and I are a little rough right now. I don't really want to talk about it though." I tell them. "How are you guys and your men?" I ask them, in any attempt to change the subject.

"Oh my god, Annabelle. John talked about marriage last week." Nicki says, super excited. "Like he usually runs at the subject, but ever since we had that weird break thing, he's been so much more open about stuff."

"That's great." I grin. Nicki was an awesome person, and I thought that she deserved to have a happy relationship. "Speaking of, when are you getting married?" I ask Bri. I know she'd been planning a wedding the past month or so.

"We're getting married in June." She smiles. "I'm sending you and Joe and invitation." She adds.

"Awesome. I"m excited." I tell her.

***...***...***

"How was your guys ride?" I ask Joe when we were in our hotel room.

"Not bad." He shrugs. "Threw on some rock music. What about yours?" He questions, crawling up the length of the bed.

"We talked the whole time. Pretty sure I'd kill myself if I had to travel with them all the time. 10 hours too much of Bella talk." I chuckle. I put the rest of my clothes on the hanger and go sit on the bed with him.

"Come here nani." He murmurs, tugging on my elbow. "What'd y'all talk about?" He questions. He pulls the tie out of my hair and shakes my curls loose. The drive to Miami was about 10 hours, and we did it over night so everyone was super exhausted when we finally made it. The girls went right up to the room to get some sleep and so did Colby, but I was too wired from drinking Mt Dew all night to sleep. That's going to creep up on me later and I'd crash around noon.

"Everything." I sigh, enjoying the feeling of his fingers sliding through my hair. "Mostly thought Bri drilled me about her wedding and I helped her tie the ribbons on her invitations."

"In the car?" He mumbles.

"In the car." I nod, unimpressed. "I guess she brings all the junk everywhere. And I guess John has been all sweet on Nicki lately, talking about getting married and he bought her a gorgeous house. I don't know, we just caught up." I say. 'Mmmmm' he groans with his eyes closed. "Are you tired?" I ask him earning another 'mmmm'. I literally laid there with him for an hour while he napped. Not like I had the option to move anyway, he had both arms around me. "Morning." I say when his stretches next to me.

"Hey..." He murmurs, "Are you doing anything tonight?" He questions.

"Not unless you planned something." I answer. "I am however... Going to utilize that giant tub in the bathroom. You want to take a bath with me?" I ask him and kiss his jawline. His hand cups my face and he presses his lips to mine.

"I'd rather watch." He raises his eyebrows.

"Oh really?" I grin biting on my lip.

"Yeah. Let me help you take some off this off." He murmurs as his fingers glided over the skin under my shirt. He pulls it over my head, and slips my pants off as he's sliding out of the bed.

"Where you going?" I basically whine, watching him walk into the bathroom.

"Starting your water." He answers. I shed my bra and panties and walk into the bathroom. "Hello gorgeous." He smiles, palming a breast. He finds my mouth again and his hands travel down my curves before squeezing a butt cheek in each one. "Bubble bath?" He offers when we break apart.

"No, I'm not much for bubbles. Bath salts would be nice though." I state. "Might have to get some later." I add slipping into the tub and sinking down to my nose.

"How's it feel?" He asks, leaning over the edge of the tub and resting his head on his arms.

"Pretty amazing." I sigh.

"Do you feel better?"

"What do you mean?" I murmur, looking at him.

"I mean that when we left last night you weren't yourself. You ready to tell me what was wrong yet?" He asks. I wasn't about to get anything past him. His hand slips into the water and he massages the inside of my thigh, "Tell me."

"I am... Scared, to do anything around you." I finally reply.

"Keep going." He encourages.

"I love you, and I don't want to do or say the wrong thing. Like, I feel like no matter what I'm doing you're thinking I'm doing something else if that makes sense." I try to explain. "I saw you look at my caller ID on my phone last night, and I wondered to myself if you thought I wasn't really talking to Nicki... I don't know Joe, just stupid stuff. I feel like I'm walking on eggshells. I AM walking on eggshells." I tell him. "I didn't want to come here and hang out with the girls because I didn't want you to think I was doing something else with someone else. I'd just have rather stayed home with you and avoided it all."

"Nani, I don't want you feeling that way." He says calmly. "I don't want you to feel like you have to completely abandon your life or girlfriends because of this. I'll admit, that I have serious issues with you going out on a "girls night" And yes, he used his fingers to make the quotes. "Lord knows we both know what happened on your last one, but I have to let you do stuff like that in order for me to heal on my side." He states. "If you're with me every minute of everyday that doesn't fix anything."

"I know... I just... I don't know, that's just how I felt. And I was sad last night because I want to make you happy and I don't feel like I've been doing a very good job since we got back together." I admit.

"Just because we fight sometimes, and really we haven't even fought we've just been working out the kinks, doesn't mean you don't make me happy." He says offering me a small smile. "You make me happy, I haven't been more happy since you came back from running away."

"I didn't run away." I scoff.

"You ran away. Nani, a relationship is like a house. When a light bulb burns out, you don't sell the house and take off... Ya fix the broken bulb." He chuckles. "You fucked up, and you ran from your problem instead of sticking around to face it head on. In other words, you sold the house."

"You weren't speaking to me." I remind him.

"Doesn't matter. You knew I have days off and you knew I come home on most of them. You didn't fight for our relationship, you ran off with your brother and made ridiculous, stupid choices instead." He shrugs.

"That's bullshit." I say to him, narrowing my eyes. "I fought for you."

"You chased me into the building after the bus, then later apologized and grabbed my arm begging me not to leave. Then you tucked tail and left." He states. "That's not fighting sweet heart."

"You're right." I sigh. "It was easier to put it behind me and try to forget about it."

"Don't do that again." He smirks and I roll my eyes.

"I won't." I say.

"Speaking of making me happy... I've got 8 inches of something for you when you get out of that tub." He teases. I failed at holding back my grin and roll my eyes at him. "Don't roll your eyes at me. You're on eggshells remember?" He says, adding to the teasing.

"God! You dick!" I laugh and splash some water at him.

"What? I'm just saying." He grins innocently. "I love you."

"I love you too. It's not too late to get in this tub with me you know." I suggest.

"Or you could come out." He says. He reaches into the water and easily scoops me up, pulling me out of the water and making me laugh.

"You're getting water everywhere!" I exclaim.

"So what?" He chuckles, tossing me on the bed.

"Now the bed is wet." I smirk.

"We're not sleeping in it for a while anyway." He murmurs, crawling up on top of me.

"So... Can I ask YOU something?" I question.

"It's not going to lead to sex is it?" He sighs, falling down next to me.

"Probably not, but we've got all day." I grin at him. "How did you come to be ok with Jon?" I ask curiously.

"Time... And a couple punches." He answers. "I still have times where I think about it and I just, I don't know, fume I guess but they are becoming fewer and far between." He adds.

"You punched him?" I ask, failing at holding back my grin. Really, it wasn't funny.

"Yeah. Twice." He nods.

***...***...***

"Are you done in there yet?" Joe asks, leaning up against the door of the bathroom. We were meeting up with a bunch of people for dinner.

"You look very handsome." I comment glancing at him through the mirror. He was in a pair of black dress pants, and a button up white shirt.

"Thank you." He smiles. "You look, really sexy in that dress." He murmurs, "It's new." He notices.

"I got it in Rio." I tell him. "At a market in town. And yes, I'm done." I say, finishing the last of my eyeliner. A half hour later I'm at a table sitting between Joe and Nicki, surrounded by Cena, Trin and Jon, Bri and Bryan, and Orton and Jo Jo. I wasn't going to lie, I'm not really a big fan or Randy Orton but I liked his little girlfriend Jo Jo.

"What are you going to eat?" Nicki asks me, crossing one leg over the other.

"Oh my god, those are so cute." I tell her, pointing to her shoes. They were black, with red trimming and spikes all over.

"Aren't they? John got them for me." She grins.

"I love them." I say, "And I think I'm going to have chicken alfredo." I answer her first question.

"Oh, that sounds good..." She murmurs, flipping the menu page. "I might have that too." She nods. "And wine."

"Wine, of course. Who could forget wine?" I tease her and she smirks. I slide my hand over Joe's thigh and let it rest there. "You look miserable." I whisper in his ear. He looked less than impressed to be here.

"I can think of other things I'd rather be doing." He admits. "Are you hungry?" He questions.

"A little." I nod

"I suppose we'll stick around then, huh?" He smirks, running his hand over my own that was still resting on his thigh. It's about that time I tune into the conversation on the other side of the table.

"Ok so call me naive but have you heard the phrase throw your pure in the tree while fighting? What does that even mean?" Bri asks confused. I couldn't help it, I laughed and she glared playfully at me. "You laughed, so you better know the answer." She states.

"You throw your purse up in a tree when so when you're fighting no one jacks it. Plus ain't no body going to climb up the tree for a measly 5 dollars, they're going to haul ass running before the police get there." I tell her.

"Huh, that makes sense." She murmurs with a nod.

"God, how do you know that?" Nicki laughs.

"I didn't grow up in the rich neighborhood of San Diego." I tease them. "Los Angele's ghetto." I state. "All you need to win a fight is a beer bottle and a razor blade in your pony tail." I shrug.

"You do what you gotta do to survive." Jon laughs, nodding his head.

"That's right." I grin. "And for the record, I am not carrying a razor blade in my hair right now." I assure them, patty my head like it was a black girl weave.

"You got a beer though." Jon chuckles, pointing to Joe's beer in front of me.

"One without the other doesn't work." Joe says and takes a sip of his beer. So later we're back in our hotel room, "Did you really grow up in the LA ghetto?" Joe asks.

"Nah, not really." I grin. "I grew up in a town outside LA actually, but I had hood friends... And come on, you know the people I run with. Not the greatest crowd."

"That's for sure." He agrees. "Nicki is calling." He says after a moment.

"Answer it and put her on speaker." I murmur, digging through the duffle bag for something to change into. "Hello?" I answer.

"Hey girl." She replies.

"I feel like I just got done talking to you." I chuckle.

"You did." She says obviously. "Hey I want to go shopping tomorrow before RAW, do you want to go with me?" She asks. I don't respond right away and glance at Joe who nods, 'sure', but for some reason I still felt guilty agreeing to going anywhere without him.

"I'd love to go." I finally tell her.

"Yay. So, like noon?" She questions.

"Noon is good." I say. "See you tomorrow." I tell her, pulling one of Joe's tshirts over my head.

"Bye." She replies and Joe hits the end button on his phone. "Why are we traveling around when you're injured and should be home resting?" I ask him, sitting in bed and burying my cold feet under his back.

"Because you miss your girlfriends, and I miss the guys." He murmurs, focusing hard on his phone.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Playing candy crush." He murmurs again and I roll my eyes.

"This is love." I tell him playfully and he looks at me. "You letting me put my cold ass feet against your back and not getting annoyed with me. It's true love." I grin.


	12. Chapter 12

"Where are you guys going tonight?" Joe asks. He was leaning against the bathroom door, watching me curl my hair. I'd already squeezed into the short little white dress that Eva had borrowed me, that Joe was not too impressed with. "Listen, if you bend over... The whole world about to see your cookie." He mutters, shaking his head.

"I won't bend over." I murmur as I applied mascara. "And we're going to the London on South Beach." I answer.

"What was wrong with the dress you packed?" He questions. I'd packed a halter style, knee length, lime green and pink pin up style dress. "It's one of my favorites." He adds.

"It's not nightclub material." I shrug. "And it would get hot and my boobs would sweat..." I say. "And I'm trying to make nice with Eva, because you know we hated each other before and now over the year I was gone everyone like made up. If Nicki says she's a nice person, she can't be that bad."

"Oh yeah, a lot of Diva drama happened while you were gone. You should almost be thankful you were gone for it." He chuckles.

"What are you getting into tonight?" I ask him.

"Colby and I are going to cross fit later." He replies.

"Cross fit isn't in a nice area of town..." I comment, pursing my lips. Granted, the Miami ghetto wasn't the scariest place I'd ever been to but it still made me nervous.

"You really think people are going to mess with Colby and I?" He smirks at me. "Don't worry about us." He says, leaning down and kissing me. I'm grinning at him when he pulls away, "What?"

"Red isn't your color." I giggle and use my thumb to wipe the bright red lipstick off his lips.

"I've heard that before." He says.

"Jamie knows his colors." I shrug.

***...***...***

"Come on, lets party!" Nicki exclaims. We literally just walked in here and she's dragging me up to the bar. "Can I get a blue rocker punch and..." She looks at me expectantly. The last thing I wanted to do was get hammered tonight, but I'm thinking it was inevitable.

"I'll have the same." I tell the bartender. A blue rocker punch had about 5 different liquors in it with a little bit of liquid ice to make it a blue color. Good, but lethal.

"Damn, look at that guy..." She murmurs in my ear, handing me the drink. "He's freaking hot." She adds.

"Ew." I laugh. "I think he's got a mullet going on in the back... Business in the front, a whole lot of party in the back. Not sexy." I add making a face.

"Whatever! That's not a mullet." She laughs, smacking my shoulder.

"Rat tail?" I suggest playfully.

"God shut up." She shakes her head. We walked back to where everyone had picked out a table/booth area and sat down.

"Oh my god, you look so good in that dress!" Eva exclaims, sitting down next to me. "And the heels are hot too." She adds, glancing at my feet.

"Thanks. I'll be barefoot by the end of the night." I laugh.

"What are you guys drinking?" Nattie asks.

"They're called blue rocker punch." I reply.

"What's in it?" She questions. "Is it a creeper?"

"It's got crown, peach 23, soco, a little jack and liquid ice. No... you feel it almost instantly." I tell her. "You don't want a creeper, that junk'll fuck you up quick." I say.

"I know I don't know what to drink. I always end up with something that sneaks up on me." She replies.

"Get passion fruit vodka and liquid ice. It's really good and not a creeper." I assure her. Four hours later I'm totally smashed and I can't breath I'm laughing so hard. Bri is up on one of the stools, doing some kind of dance that she calls sexy. "Stop. I'm your friend, and I'm about to tell you it looks like you're having a wicked seizure!" I laugh.

"She's gonna fall." Trinity murmurs in my ear. I look up and yeah, she was pretty off balance. "She's gonna power plant the floor..."

"And wreck her face." I agree. "Get your sister down from her table stool dance, she's going to blow her face out on the tile floor." I shout to Nicki. When Bri hit Bri-mode, the bitch got crazy.

"I am not!" Bri slurs at me, plopping down from the chair.

"What's your boyfriend doing here?" I ask Trinity, noticing Jon and Tyler walking up to our table.

"The house show just got over. He said he'd come by when they got out." She replies. "Hey baby." She grins at him, getting up to sit on his lap. Tyler walks over and parks himself on the booth next to me.

"Hey sunshine." He smiles.

"Hey Ty." I grin, taking another sip of my drink. I grin at him, not because I was flirting but more because I was shit faced and I couldn't help it.

"You're lit." He chuckles.

"Just light the match." I nod. "How have you been?" I ask him. I never texted Tyler, lately I just hadn't wanted to take the risk.

"Not too bad. Did you change your number? I've texted you a few times." He says, furrowing his brows.

"Nope. I just haven't answered. Sorry." I shrug. I'd never been the sugar coat anything type anyway, but throw some liquor in me and I was brutally honest.

"It's ok, if I were switched with Joe I wouldn't want you texting him either." He replies even though I could tell it hurt him a little bit. "Can I get you a drink?" He offers, motioning to the bar. "I'm about to go up."

"Sure. I'm drinking Southern Comfort, cranberry juice and lime." I tell him. My drink was nearly gone and no harm ever came from letting a friend buy you a drink right?

"Don't give him any ideas like you owe him something." Nicki says in my ear. Her eyebrows raise as she watches him head towards the bar.

"From buying me a drink?" I basically scoff at her.

"Yeah I don't know." She shrugs. "Bri and Nattie are talking about going over to the casino after this, the bar is 24 hours." She tells me.

"Thank you." I smile at Tyler when he hands me my drink. "I don't know if I want to be out that long." I say honestly. I was already missing Joe, and I could feel my stomach churning with each passing minute.

"It could be fun. Drink some more and throw money in the machine. Might win big." She says with a grin.

"Or not win at all." I laugh.

"No kidding." Tyler agrees. I pull out my phone, hoping that Joe was still awake even though it was nearly 2am.

"What are you doing?" Text to Joe.

"What is this?" I ask Nattie, who'd basically just shoved a shot into my hand. It looked like a jager bomb, but smelled like cherries.

"It's called a Chuck Norris!" Trinity answers from across the table. We hold up our shots, cheers to something and throw it back. I don't know what a Chuck Norris was, but it was tasty.

"Laying in bed. When are you coming back?" Text from Joe.

"Will you come get me?" Text to Joe.

"You're going to leave?" Nicki whines, looking down at my text. I look at her a grin, that shot was starting to hit me. You know I'm just freaking ripped when all I can do is stare at you and grin like an idiot.

"I can't keep going like this much longer." I slur. It was time for me to go, at least I knew when it was time to stop. No, that's a lie... If I knew when it was time to stop, I'd have thrown in the towel a few hours ago when i started getting drunk.

"Yeah I'll come get you. Are you sure?" Text from Joe.

"I'm sure." Text to Joe.

"We're going to dance. Come on!" Nattie calls a few minutes later. She'd had more to drink than nearly all of us, minus Bri, how she managed to dance was beyond me.

"Joe is coming to get me. I had a lot of fun, but I can't go out and dance." I laugh. "I"ll be lucky if I can walk outside to the car. Please text me when you get back to the room, so I know you made it." I say to Nicki.

"I love you girl. See you tomorrow." She nods. That ridiculous tired was starting to hit me.

"Are you alright?" Tyler asks me wearily.

Nope. I was sure I was going to be sick soon. I can count on one hand how many times I've been so hammered I've throw up, and this was about to be one of them.

"I'm ok." I sigh, leaning my head back on the booth and take a deep breath.

"You want a water or something?" He offers.

"Nope." I reply. Another deep breath, and I close my eyes, which was a mistake because the room started to spin around me.

"Nani..." Joe murmurs a little worried, making me open my eyes. He takes a side ways glance at Tyler, who thankfully was in a chair across from me rather than sitting next to me. "I'm double parked out front, ready?" He asks. I stare at him and nod a 'yes', but couldn't bring myself to move. "I got you." He sighs, scooping me up into his arms. He doesn't say anything as he puts me into the passenger seat and wraps the seat belt around me.

"Are you mad?" I ask him. My eyes were kind of open, but not enough to be able to read the expression on his face.

"Why would I be mad about you have a good time? I'm glad you called instead of going out more though. I know those girls pull all nighters. What were you drinking all night that caused full body paralization?" He chuckles.

"It started with blue party rockers... Soco and cranberry juice, fireballs... I don't remember. Too much." I grumble in response. "Something called a Chuck Norris." I add with a shake of my head.

"Good god... Ripped." I hear him mutter. It felt like no time had passed and he was back at the door against pulling me out. My head rested on his shoulder as we made our way up to the room. Just in time too, because I was about to puke up my insides. "Door won't open. Can you stand a minute, lean against the wall." He says, setting me down.

"Joe... Open the door." I warn him. His eyes get a little bigger and he shoves it open and nearly throws me inside the room. I made it into the bathroom, threw the toilet seat up, and puked... And puked, and puked some more. I hear him sigh behind me as he walked in, and sit down on the bathtub. He bundled up my hair and held it behind me neck.

"You want me to get you something?" He asks when my puking ceased.

"A gun." I grumble, unimpressed.

"You should have ate before you left." He scolds me.

"Quiet..." I warn him. I rested my forehead against his knee, trying to catch my breath.

"Did you at least have fun?" He questions, running his fingers through my hair.

"It was a lot of fun." I smile at him. "We drank, and danced, and drank, and danced, and danced, and had a shot, and danced." I chuckle.

"And when did Tyler show up?" He asks. I wondered how long it'd take him to ask about Tyler.

"I don't know, like a half hour before I texted you." I answer. "He came with Jon. Take me to the bed?" I ask him pitifully.

"Oh hell no. Brush your teeth first." He laughs, pushing some of his hair behind his shoulder. "I still want to kiss you tonight." He tells me.

"Fine..." I mutter, using his large frame to pull myself up. A few minutes later my mouth is clean and I'm crawling up into bed next to him. "You wanna have sex?" I ask him. He chuckles from the foot of the bed and shakes his head in disbelief. "What? Not romantic enough for you?" I grin.

"You just threw up your intestines, I'm not taking the chance of you throwing up all over the bed because I'm giving it to you good." He smirks.

"Whatever." I roll my eyes. He pulled his shirt off and slid into bed next to me, and reached over to turn the light off. I waited exactly five seconds before letting my fingers wander his bare chest. "You're really not going to give me anything?" I pout.

"Nani... You're sick." He sighs.

"I'm not sick. I'm drunk, and there's a difference." I tell him. "And honestly the drunk is starting to wear off to tired." I admit. My hand travels down and slips under his briefs, he takes in a sharp breath as my fingers wrap around his length. "Someone else says you want it." I chuckle.

"I never said I didn't want it." He rebuts. His hardness twitches in my hand and I stroke it, slowly. He doesn't stop me, instead pushes his briefs down his legs and I hear them hit the floor. I lean up and press my lips to his before sliding down the length of his body, a teasing his head with the tip of my tongue. His fingers tangle in my hair as I take a few inches into my mouth and swirl my tongue around the soft skin. I kept my slow pace, bobbing up and down his length. His grip tightened in my hair and he pushed my head down, taking at least 6 inches into my mouth and holds me there. "Fuck..." I hear him growl as he released me. I came up for air, but continued to use my hand to stroke his length.

"Joe." I comment. My free hand gives the inside of his thigh a squeeze and he looks at me. Not much turned me on more than when he watched me pleasure him. His eyes focus hard on me in the darkness, the only light that came in was from the moonlight that snuck through the curtains. I ran my tongue along the bottom of his shaft before my mouth engulfed it again, this time with more of a purpose. My hand was still on his length, following closely behind my mouth as my pace quickened. A few minutes later I felt it jerk in my mouth, a sure sign that I had exactly ten seconds to take my mouth away or get shot in the throat with a load. I wasn't much of a swallower, I really didn't want it in my mouth at all and I pulled away, still stroking him with my hand. He grunted and his fingers dug into my shoulder as spurt after spurt of cum landed on his chest. "You want a towel?" I chuckle, watching his chest raise and fall as he panted for air.

"Yeah." He breaths. I slip off the bed and disappear into the bathroom, tossing a hand towel at him and he wipes the goo of his stomach.

"Ready for bed now?" I yawn, suddenly really tired.

"No. You haven't came." He murmurs, pulling me flush against his side. He bites and sucks on my neck playfully for a moment before pulling back and looking at me. "You really are tired aren't you?" He asks.

"I thought I could make it, but I can't." I chuckle, limp in his arms.

"Fine... Lets go to sleep then." He smiles, pressing a kiss to my forehead.

A/N: I can't even lie... I don't have a good excuse for not updating in like 2 weeks. I've been working on a new story (with Seth Rollins ;) and out doing stuff in the nice weather that I've just kinda forgot. *Shrug* Anyway, I still love you guys for still reviewing and favorite/following the story :)


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